LIDS® Foundation 2015 'Tip the Hat Award' Top Prize Winner: Make-A-Wish® Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana

- Regional Nonprofit Wins Top $125,000 Grant Award with 38 Percent of Online Fan Vote -

- Third Annual Tip the Hat Award Program Awards $300,000 Total in Charitable Grants -

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Mar 16, 2015, 07:54 ET

INDIANAPOLIS, March 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- LIDS® Foundation (www.lidsfoundation.org) crowns Make-A-Wish® Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana as the $125,000 grand prize winner its 2015 "Tip the Hat Award" grants program. LIDS Foundation turned to "people's choice" online voting to determine the first- through fifth-place winners for its third annual Tip the Hat Awards grant program that nearly doubled in size this year to offer a total of $300,000 in funding.

"We were extremely impressed with the variety and strength of the programs that submitted to this year's grants competition," says Scott Molander, LIDS Foundation Board president and Executive Vice President of LIDS Sports Group. "It's rewarding to see and support the work these programs do to nurture and enrich the lives and minds of tomorrow's leaders."

2015 LIDS Foundation Tip the Hat Winners
The "Tip the Hat Award" is LIDS Foundation's largest annual grant, which supports nonprofits that promote active and healthy lifestyles as well as leadership and growth opportunities. Grant recipients were selected from an open call for entries, then narrowed down to five finalists and placed before an online fan vote that determined the level of grant support each finalist received.

By popular demand, this year's Tip the Hat Awards winners include:

1st Place: $125,000	Make-A-Wish® Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana, oki.wish.org Regional arm of Make-A-Wish, an organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. (38 percent of fan vote)

2nd Place: $75,000	Fields & Futures, fieldsandfutures.org Registered 501(c)(3) that serves Oklahoma City Public Schools Athletics in its mission to rebuild 44 athletic fields, provide professional development for 265 coaches, and initiate a student mentoring program – all in an effort to grow student participation in sports, giving more kids the opportunity to benefit from that experience and to help strengthen neighborhoods and communities across the district. (29 percent of fan vote)

3rd Place: $50,000	Special Olympics Indiana, soindiana.org Not-for-profit organization that provides year-round training and athletic competition in more than 20 Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, reaching more than 11,000 athletes across Indiana. (16 percent of fan vote)

4^th Place: $25,000	Little Wish Foundation, www.littlewishfoundation.org Regional nonprofit that grants wishes to children with cancer. Since 2010, it has granted more than 250 "little wishes" to children across Indiana. (12 percent of fan vote)

5^th Place: $25,000	Anthony Munoz Foundation, www.munozfoundation.org Cincinnati-based nonprofit founded by former Cincinnati Bengal and member of the Pro Football hall of Fame Anthony Munoz to engage the Tri-State region to impact youth mentally, physically, and spiritually. (5 percent of fan vote)

In addition to its top five grant awards, Tip the Hat also honored the work of the following programs by bestowing each with a micro-grant to assist their youth development efforts:

Disabled Sports USA, Give Kids the World, CHAMP Camp, Fight for Life Foundation, Live Healthy & Thrive Foundation, Brandon Burlsworth Foundation, YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County, Team IMPACT, Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation, Project GOAL, Unlimited Play, United Soccer Alliance, Indiana Soccer Foundation, Small Wonders, Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, Minority Athletes Networking and Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance.

For more information on LIDS Foundation and the annual Tip the Hat Award, please visit www.lidsfoundation.org.

ABOUT LIDS FOUNDATION

The LIDS Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and the philanthropic support arm of LIDS Sports Group. The Foundation works to engage young people in the communities where LIDS Sports Group operates to become active in sports-related activities that promote healthy lifestyles as well as leadership and growth opportunities. It accomplishes its mission primarily through offering resources – be it in the manner of time, expertise, funds, or materials – to nonprofit organizations with goals and values that align with those of the LIDS Foundation. To find out more about the LIDS Foundation, visit www.lidsfoundation.org.

ABOUT LIDS SPORTS GROUP

The LIDS Sports Group, operating within Hat World Inc., is comprised of the LIDS retail headwear stores, the Locker Room by LIDS specialty fan retail chain, the LIDS Clubhouse retail stores, the LIDS Team Sports wholesale team sports business, and the Internet businesses www.lids.com, www.lidsclubhouse.com, www.lidsteamsports.com and www.lids.ca. Operating out of Indianapolis, Indiana, the retail businesses make up more than 1,200 mall-based, airport, street level and factory outlet locations nationwide, and in Canada and Puerto Rico. LIDS retail stores offer officially licensed and branded headwear of collegiate teams, major professional sports teams, as well as other specialty fashion categories in the latest styles and colors. Locker Room by LIDS is a mall-based retailer of sports headwear, apparel, accessories, and novelties which also operates under the Sports Fan-Attic and Sports Avenue retail concepts. Most LIDS and Locker Room by LIDS stores also offer custom embroidery capability. LIDS Clubhouse operates team-specific professional sports and university athletics retail stores and e-commerce sites. LIDS Team Sports is a full-service team uniform and apparel dealer, custom screen printer, embroidery and sporting goods distributor. Hat World Inc. is a subsidiary of Genesco Inc.

SOURCE LIDS Foundation