The award promoted by the Neighborhood Council, with the support of Citizenship Participation, recognizes people whose behavior serves as a model of coexistence and dedication
Benidorm opens the process to select its Exemplary Neighbor for 2024
The deadline for submitting applications will be September 30
Benidorm Neighbourhood Council, with the support of the Department of Citizen Participation, has launched a new call for the Exemplary Neighbour Award, which recognises Benidorm residents whose behaviour serves as a model of coexistence and inspiration for the rest of the citizens. The councillor for the department, Ana Pellicer, has announced that the deadline for submitting applications opens this Sunday 1st September and will be open until the end of the month.
Pellicer pointed out that this award, which has “the uniqueness of coming from civil society”, is “a magnificent opportunity to highlight the work, dedication, altruism, commitment and empathy of our neighbours”, recognising “people who share outstanding and notable personal, civic and ethical values, who have been or are at the service of the city and whose daily life and good practices serve as a stimulus for the rest of society”.
On this occasion, “to maximize the scope of this call and make it even more plural, all entities in Benidorm have been encouraged to participate, regardless of their area of action.”
As established in the rules of the call, any citizen or entity that wishes to do so may submit applications for the Exemplary Neighbour Award until 30 September, registering the form for this purpose at the offices of the Neighbourhood Council or the Department of Citizen Participation.
The proposal must be endorsed by the signature of three people or a legal entity as well as a text detailing the merits that this person would have and that would make him worthy of this recognition. These merits, Pellicer explained, “must be related to respect for people, solidarity, peaceful coexistence and tolerance among citizens, together with personal sacrifice, solidarity or personal improvement.”
From among all the applications submitted by September 30, the commission created for this purpose by the Neighborhood Council will select three finalists; applications that will be submitted to the verdict of a jury, which will have the final say in the election of the Exemplary Neighbor of 2024.
This jury will be made up of five "significant people, chosen by the Committee of the Neighborhood Council, all of them residents of Benidorm and unrelated to any candidacy." In addition, they will be joined by the exemplary neighbours awarded in previous editions who wish to do so. The president of the jury will preferably be the oldest member among the exemplary neighbours of previous years who accept the invitation.
Pellicer has encouraged “individuals and entities to join this endearing initiative by submitting applications”, and has recalled that in successive editions, the Exemplary Neighbour Award has recognised “the career of people who have left their mark and imprint on the service to citizens and our society”, thereby contributing “to continuing to build a better Benidorm every day”. To date, there have been ten editions of this award, with the following people having been recognised: Francisco Fenoll Rostoll (2011), Antonio Gonzaga Pico (2012), Francisco Alvado Barber (2013), Carmen Cerda Garrido (2014), Maria Rosa Gonzalez Mata-Rubio and Juan Jose Garcia Albarran (posthumously in 2015), Casimiro Vila Esteban (2016), Eusebi Chiner Vives (2017), Maria Zaragoza Lloret (2018), Jesus Rosillo Jimenez (2019) and Barbara Perez Llinares (2023).