Liz Erickson Volunteer Impact Award honoree Jeremy Perlman, Rising Star Award honoree Celeste Avery, and Community Award honoree YWCA of Princeton’s NextGen Board have been selected as this year’s Impact Awards recipients for their commitment to community service and volunteerism.

Jeremy Perlman, Celeste Avery, and YWCA of Princeton’s NextGen Board to Be Recognized

Liz Erickson Volunteer Impact Award honoree Jeremy Perlman, Rising Star Award honoree Celeste Avery, and Community Award honoree YWCA of Princeton’s NextGen Board have been selected as this year’s Impact Awards recipients for their commitment to community service and volunteerism.  The Impact Awards are conferred every year by VolunteerConnect, the Mercer County–based nonprofit committed to advancing volunteerism, promoting skills-based volunteering, and providing capacity-building support to other charitable organizations. The honorees will be celebrated at VolunteerConnect’s Annual Impact Awards event on Thursday, October 24, at Mercer Oaks Country Club starting at 6 p.m.

“As an organization committed to volunteerism, we are eager to recognize and honor individuals and organizations in our community that are engaging fellow community members and giving of themselves,” said Allison Howe, VolunteerConnect’s executive director. “We are particularly happy to see work being done to diversify nonprofit board service with outreach to young people, women, and people of color. We want to spotlight that there is room for everyone in service, and also to inspire many more people to serve.”

2019 Impact Awards Honorees

(l-r) Celeste Avery, YWCA of Princeton’s NextGen Board, and Jeremy Perlman

Jeremy Perlman is being recognized with the Liz Erickson Volunteer Impact Award. The award is named for the late Elizabeth Erickson, a champion for Princeton-area community service. Perlman, a senior risk advisor at Borden Perlman, founded the NextGen Giving Circle of the Princeton Area Community Foundation, an incubator for developing young people as the next generation of philanthropic leaders in the Greater Mercer County region. The initiative has more than 20 active members and has distributed more than $40,000 in charitable gifts since its inception in 2017. Additionally, Perlman serves on the boards of directors of Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County, Princeton Mercer Regional Chamber, and Penn Hillel.

The Rising Star Award, which recognizes a graduate of VolunteerConnect’s board training program who has gone on to make a significant impact by sharing of their time, talent, and treasure on a nonprofit board, will go to Celeste Avery this year. Avery has served on the Camp Fire NJ board since she completed BoardConnect in 2014. Her passion for Camp Fire’s commitment to youth development has been evident to the organization’s leadership since her start. She became the board’s chair in 2016.

The NextGen Board of the YWCA of Princeton is aimed at securing the future of nonprofit board leadership and empowering young women. Participants are engaged in personal and professional development, and actively learn about board leadership by working with the YWCA of Princeton’s board of directors.

For more information about the award recipients or for tickets to attend the Annual Impact Awards, go to VolunteerConnectNJ.org or call 609-921-8893.