Nominate a Guiding Light in the Industry

Nonprofit The H Foundation – organizer of the annual Goombay Bash in Chicago, spearheaded by Horton’s – has opened the call for nominations for its Rick Wiedemer Guiding Light Award.

The Guiding Light Award is presented every year during the popular Goombay Bash, held in July at Chicago’s Navy Pier. Considered to be the lighting industry’s largest philanthropic event, the Goombay Bash and other initiatives offered by The H Foundation have raised more than $15 million for basic science cancer research over the past 20 years.

In 2017, The H Foundation created the Guiding Light Award to specifically honor companies and individuals in the lighting community for their consistent and enduring efforts supporting the foundation’s mission to fund science research and find a cure for cancer. The inaugural award was presented to the lighting companies Generation Lighting, Hinkley, Kichler, Quoizel, Satco and WAC. Subsequent recipients have included Lighting One President Gregg Garofalo, Hubbardton Forge CEO Maria Mullen, former WAC Lighting Co-CEOs Dirk & Shelley Wald, SATCO | NUVO Lighting President Bill Gildin, and SATCO | NUVO Vice President of Global Sales Alan Karen. In 2022, the award was given posthumously to former Hinkley CEO Rick Wiedemer, for whom the award is now named.

The Rick Wiedemer Guiding Light Award is bestowed upon an individual or company who exemplifies leadership qualities that guide others towards a brighter future in which no one will suffer the hardships of this horrible disease that affects one in three people. It celebrates the community spirit that has used ingenuity to shine a spotlight on and raise money for cancer research. The lighting industry alone is responsible for nearly $5 million of what The H Foundation has raised for the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center’s basic science research to date, and many members of the lighting industry serve as volunteers and cheerleaders for the cause.

Anyone in the lighting industry may nominate an individual or a company for the Rick Wiedemer Guiding Light Award, regardless of their involvement specifically with The H Foundation or the Goombay Bash. This year’s event will take place July 25 at the AON Grand Ballroom on Chicago’s Navy Pier.

The eligibility requirements for nominees are:

• Must be within the lighting industry

• Must demonstrate a strong past and ongoing commitment to supporting cancer research

All 2026 nominations must be submitted by April 17 and will be reviewed by the Guiding Light Award Committee before the recipient is announced.

Click here to fill out & submit a nomination.

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