Operation Homefront announces that submissions are open for the 2027 Military Child of the Year® Awards, the nation’s premier recognition of the outstanding achievements of military children. Submissions will close on Dec. 1.
Now in its 19th year, Operation Homefront hosts the Military Child of the Year® Awards. The awards are open to military children between the ages of 13-18. Recipients will represent a branch of the armed forces — the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, and Space Force — for their scholarship, volunteerism, leadership, extracurricular involvement, and other criteria while facing the challenges of military family life.
Children are entered by nominations. Anyone that knows a military child can nominate any military child. Educators may nominate your students or friend’s children. Children can nominate their siblings and best friends and so on.
All Operation Homefront Military Child of the Year Award recipients will be flown with a parent or guardian to Washington, D.C., and recognized at the April 2027 gala, during which senior leaders of each branch of service will present the awards. They also will receive $10,000 each, a laptop computer, and other donated gifts. The gala is usually held in April, the month of the military child, as a way to recognize the support and appreciation we provide to military families.
WHAT ARE THE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS?
- Child must be a legal military dependent. Status confirmed by DEERS enrollment form.
- Military children must be between the ages of 13 and 18, at the time of nomination.
- Child and one adult guardian must be available to travel to the Washington, D.C. area April 2027, during the month of the military child, for the Operation Homefront Military Child of the Year Awards Gala award presentation.
- Officers, directors, employees, and agents of Operation Homefront and its subsidiaries or affiliated organizations, and their immediate family members (parent, child, sibling, and spouse of each) and those living in the same households of each are not eligible to receive programs, services, grants, or donated goods intended for use by Operation Homefront’s clients.
- Previous Operation Homefront Military Child of the Year Award Recipients, including Innovation Award recipients, are no longer eligible.
See Operation Homefront flyer for details.
Visit Operation Homefront website for more information.