The Kansas Department of Commerce is taking applications now through 5 p.m. March 20 for the 2015 Business Appreciation Month Awards.

The awards salute companies that have undertaken expansions, made capital investments in the state, given back to their community and helped build up the Sunflower State’s workforce. Winners will be selected from the service, retail, hospital-nonprofit and manufacturing-distribution industries.

Several different organizations—small business development centers and chambers of commerce, for example—will make nominations for the awards, but it’s OK for companies to nominate themselves, too.

There will be regional winners recognized from across the state, and the best of the finalists will take home the Governor’s Award of Excellence. The awards will be presented during the Team Kansas awards banquet in June.

(If your company wins a regional award, you’ll be asked to present to a panel of judges in May.)

You can submit a nomination at www.kansascommerce.com/BAM. If you have questions, call Sarah Heinen at (785) 296-3805 or email her at sheinen@kansascommerce.com. And you can check out a list of previous years’ winners here.