Graeme Jose Spirit of Whyalla Award committee chair Jane Hayward said she was thrilled with the number of nominations this year, which is up by six from last year.

"We are really, really pleased with the amount of nominations and really grateful to the schools and those that nominated the kids," Mrs Hayward said.

"It's a really great effort."

Mrs Hayward said the nominations covered youths from a broad range of areas including a dancer and a radio announcer.

She said all the nominations were of a high standard, which would make the judges' decision difficult.

"I think each year it's going to get harder (to judge)," Mrs Hayward said.

"There's 22 nominations of really, really good kids and of course there's only going to be one winner and two runners-up.

"So we really hope that they will nominate again next year, and some of them have (for this year)."

This year the panel is made up of three independent judges; Gail Rostig, Graeme Lowe and Martin Nunn.

The majority of the nominated youths will undertake an interview on Sunday, July 19 with some scheduled for an earlier interview and from there the judges will decide who the overall winner is.

The winner will be announced at a presentation night at the council chambers on Friday, August 7.

The presentation night will be a mayoral reception and include key note speakers.

The evening is open to all the nominees, their families and invited guests.

Mrs Hayward said there was a big reception at last year's event and she anticipated there would be an even larger crowd this year due to the higher number of nominations.

"I'd like to thank all the schools that participated and the people that nominated these kids and (acknowledge) the hard work of the committee and thank the judges because they have a really hard job," Mrs Hayward said.

"They said it was a difficult job last year and there were 16 nominees.

"It's a good cross-section of the community, not just your sporting groups, which is what we really wanted.

"I'm pretty excited."

The winner of the Graeme Jose Spirit of Whyalla Award will receive a $500 prize.