Honor a Hero.
Activate a State.
A permanent civic recognition program built to scale state by state — beginning in Indianapolis on June 17, 2026.
- One Founding National & Global Partner across all 50 state capital ceremonies.
- Permanent brand placement on every Certificate of Honor — in perpetuity.
- Pre-launch pricing closes June 17, 2026.
An activation program of
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Imagine if search only indexed verified stakeholders.
Civic information should be the most trusted information in a community. Today, it’s the hardest to find.
Index everything — including AI-generated content, scraped data, SEO-gamed pages, and outdated information. The citizen has to guess what’s trustworthy.
Built for engagement, not civic clarity. Algorithms surface what provokes — not what informs. Bots, ads, opinions, and AI-generated noise outrank the real publishers.
Only verified stakeholders publish here. Civic agencies, nonprofits, and businesses with verified identity. No bots. No fakes. No AI content. No advertising war for attention.
→ For Western & Southern: your sponsorship funds the alternative.
↓ Here is how the program closes that gap.
Three steps. One state activated at a time.
Honor a Hero
A community member nominates an extraordinary local leader in their state capital — a veteran, educator, first responder, nonprofit director, or volunteer. Free. Takes two minutes.
The Hero is honored at an official ceremony
After verification, the selected Hero receives a Certificate of Honor, Community Hero Medal, Letter of Legacy, and a Virtual Key that activates their entire state.
The Virtual Key unlocks the platform statewide
CityByApp™ becomes available — for every government agency, nonprofit, business, and citizen in the state. Each one claims a free verified profile and starts publishing real, current, trusted information.
→ For Western & Southern: your brand is named on every Certificate of Honor activated through this process.
↓ The first three steps, made real by one extraordinary citizen.
Her honor activates the entire state of Indiana.
Mary L. Aurtrey · Sergeant Major, U.S. Army (Retired) · Vietnam · Desert Storm · the first of the Founding 50.
6,785,528 citizens. 92 counties. 1,008 cities and towns. ~620,000 businesses. One honor. One state. The beginning of fifty.
- Sergeant Major, U.S. Army (Retired) — Vietnam · Desert Storm
- Indiana Military Veterans Hall of Fame · AMVETS Post 99 · Veterans History Project (Library of Congress)
- VFW-aligned organizations · American Legion Women’s Post 438
- Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center · IU Memory Community Advisory Board
- Hoosier Veterans Assistance Foundation · Ronald McDonald House · The Julian Center
- Women In Networking · Global Society of Female Entrepreneurs · National Council of Negro Women
On June 17, 2026, Mary will be honored at the Office of Congressman André Carson — and through that honor, every citizen, community, nonprofit, and business in Indiana gets access to a verified civic platform.
The framed presentation Mary receives on June 17.
A permanent artifact. A permanent record. One ceremony, one Hero, fifty states to come.
June 17, 2026
Dear Mary,
On behalf of CityByApp™ Inc. and the HeroByApp™ Community Heroes Program, it is my deepest honor to recognize you as our Founding 50 Honoree — Certificate #HBA-2026-0001. This recognition is nonpartisan and intended solely to honor service and community impact.
Your decades of military service, senior leadership, and sustained community impact represent the very spirit this program was created to celebrate. You have lived a life of duty and discipline, and you have continued that same service through unwavering commitment to others. This recognition is designed to create lasting benefit — not just as a moment, but as a permanent civic legacy.
Locally — Your recognition opens CityByApp™ access for you and your selected affiliated organizations and issues Virtual Key certificates for the State of Indiana, Indianapolis (Primary), and your legacy hometowns Sumter and Pinewood, South Carolina (Legacy) — ensuring your name remains connected to the communities that shaped your journey. These Virtual Key certificates make platform access available to all 6,785,528 citizens, 92 counties, 1,008 cities/towns/villages, and an estimated 620,000 businesses across Indiana.
- Women In Networking (WIN) — Indianapolis
- American Legion Women’s Post 438 — Indianapolis
- Global Society of Female Entrepreneurs (GSFE) — Menifee, CA
- Woman’s Life, a Trusted Fraternal Life — Chapter 703 — Indianapolis
- National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) — Indianapolis Section
- Sister Soldier Network — Indianapolis
- Indiana Military Veterans Hall of Fame (Inductee)
- Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (IADRC) — Indianapolis
- Community Advisory Board, IU Memory University — Indianapolis
- American Veterans (AMVETS Post 99) — Indianapolis
- Veterans History Project (Library of Congress)
Nationally — You are the first of 50. This recognition is part of a scalable civic recognition model designed to connect leadership, organizations, businesses, and citizens through a unified civic ecosystem — built to strengthen engagement and measurable outcomes over time. When a hero is honored in every state capital, 50 Virtual Key Certificates will make platform access available across the entire United States — all 3,243 counties, more than 51,000 communities, and over 33 million businesses eligible for one unified civic platform. Your recognition is the foundation of that national vision.
Globally — Indianapolis’s sister-city relationships are also honored through Virtual Key certificates spanning multiple continents, including Campinas (Brazil), Cologne (Germany), Hangzhou (China), Hyderabad (India), Le Mans (France), Monza (Italy), Northamptonshire (United Kingdom), Onitsha (Nigeria), Piran (Slovenia), Santiago de Querétaro (Mexico), and Taipei (Taiwan) — reflecting our program principle: Local Honor. Global Impact.
Mary, your service matters. Your legacy endures. And through HeroByApp™, the impact you have already made will continue to be discoverable, verifiable, and celebrated — locally, nationally, and globally — for generations to come.
With great respect and gratitude,
Jerome Mark Mikulich
Founder & CEO
CityByApp™ Inc. x ByApp.ai
HeroByApp™ Community Heroes Program
- Hoosier Veterans Assistance Foundation (HVAF) — Indianapolis
- Ronald McDonald House — Indianapolis
- Good News Ministries — Indianapolis
- The Julian Center — Indianapolis
→ For Western & Southern: your name appears on Mary’s Certificate of Honor — the permanent civic record of State #1.
↓ Indianapolis isn’t an idea — it’s a date. The platform is already operating.
The credibility your brand sits alongside.
↓ Walk Jose through the full story — twelve slides, two minutes.
The Founding 50, slide by slide.
The full visual story in two minutes. Use the arrows to advance.
One honor ripples across every stakeholder in the state.
Citizens
6.7M
One verified place to find every civic agency, nonprofit, and business serving them.
Civic Agencies
1,008+
Free verified listing. Selected municipalities invited to the CivicByApp™ Pilot Sandbox — at no cost.
Nonprofits
33,000+
Free verified profile. Selected nonprofits earn Recognition Certificates at the ceremony.
Businesses
~620K
Free verified business listing on the state’s trusted civic platform.
Sponsors
1 National
One Founding National & Global Partner named on every Certificate of Honor across all 50 states. State, regional, and local sponsors layer beneath.
What every verified stakeholder publishes today.
Free profiles. Real content. Real-time. Real sources. Identity-verified.
Civic Agencies
Free verified civic listing on CityByApp™. Publish notices, events, services, jobs, and real estate directly to citizens — statewide reach through one trusted source.
Nonprofits
Free verified Hero Tier profile. Publish events, articles, jobs, photos, videos — reach citizens through the trusted civic graph, not social-media algorithms.
Businesses
Free verified business listing. Publish products, services, real estate, job openings, coupons, deals. Shop local visibility — no advertising war with bots.
Citizens
One trusted place to find every civic agency, nonprofit, and business serving them. Civic notices · events · jobs · real estate · services · local deals — all in one reliable layer.
Sponsor funding underwrites the trusted information layer that an entire state runs on. Every brand impression sits on top of verified civic content — not advertising noise. The Founding National & Global Partner is named on the platform that citizens, agencies, nonprofits, and businesses actually trust and use day to day.
CivicByApp™ Pilot Sandbox — for qualified municipalities
Separately, activated states unlock priority access for their municipalities to the CivicByApp™ Pilot Sandbox — a free, opt-in preview of nine modular civic-operations tools (ReportByApp™, BidByApp™, WalletByApp + PayByApp™, SecureByApp™, RealtyByApp™, GridByApp™, AnalyticsByApp + DataByApp™, MapsByApp™, CivicAudit™). For cities that want to consolidate fragmented vendor stacks. Not part of BETA 1.0; not required for any stakeholder.
Eleven content types. One trusted civic layer.
Civic agencies, nonprofits, and businesses publish directly to the platform once verified. Citizens find what they need — in one place, from sources they trust.
Identity-verified. No bots, no fakes, no exceptions. Civic infrastructure — not social media.
→ For Western & Southern: your brand sits on top of every piece of verified content published across the state.
↓ Multiply this across one state. Then fifty. Then the world.
Stakeholders publish once. Citizens find it everywhere.
The platform replaces the dozen disconnected apps and websites citizens juggle today. Verified civic content delivered through every modern interface — web, mobile, AI, maps, AR, and voice.
Web
CityByApp™.com — the unified civic directory and publishing platform. Verified entities. Real-time content. Open access for every citizen.
Native Mobile
iOS and Android apps deliver the same verified content as the web — built for the way citizens actually live, on the device they always carry.
AI Assistant
ByApp.ai natural-language interface. “What events are happening this weekend in Indianapolis?” — answered from verified civic sources, not the open internet.
Civic Maps
MapsByApp™ unified geospatial layer. Every verified agency, nonprofit, business, service, and event mapped — searchable by location, category, or proximity.
Augmented Reality
AR-powered discovery — point a phone at a building, a street, or a district and see the verified civic, business, and community information overlaid in real time.
Voice & Conversational
The same verified data accessible through voice assistants and conversational interfaces. Civic information at the speed of speech.
Citizens today switch between 10–15 disconnected apps to find civic information. One platform replaces them all. Western & Southern’s brand appears across every surface citizens use to navigate civic life — not just on a certificate, not just on a website, but across the entire verified civic experience layer.
→ For Western & Southern: your brand appears across every surface citizens use to navigate civic life.
Today is real. Tomorrow is bigger. The world is the horizon.
The Founding National & Global Partner doesn’t fund an idea. They underwrite the next phase of a platform that is already operating.
The platform already operating.
- 25 U.S. markets operational deployments
- 276,299 verified members across the platform
- 146,701+ claimed listings in Indiana alone (BETA 1.0)
- 170+ countries served by the global civic data graph
- $1M+ platform revenue · 3 live multi-year regional contracts
- 13 years building civic infrastructure
Live customer base. Live revenue. Live verification.
A national trusted civic graph.
- 50 state capital ceremonies — one Hero per state, permanent
- 3,243 counties · 51,000+ communities verified
- 33 million+ businesses eligible to claim verified profiles
- One unified platform — every civic agency, nonprofit, business, and citizen connected
- Branded recognition on every Certificate of Honor — for the Founding Partner, in perpetuity
- Network effects compound — every state activation makes every other state more valuable
The trusted civic search engine for America.
The international civic recognition layer.
- 170+ countries already in the civic data graph
- Sister-city activations — every Hero’s state extends through international sister cities (Indianapolis alone reaches 11 countries on 5 continents)
- ATAMAP partnership — exclusive licensed reseller across Africa
- International Certificates of Honor issued alongside U.S. ceremonies
- The Founding Partner’s brand appears on the international record alongside every U.S. activation
Local Honor · Global Impact. Built for permanence.
This is not a startup pitching a vision. This is an operating platform inviting one Fortune 500 partner to be named alongside its national and global expansion — permanently.
→ For Western & Southern: your founding partner status persists across all 50 states and 11 international sister cities — in perpetuity.
↓ This is the founding partnership that names you on every Certificate of Honor.
The sponsor ladder. One founding national partner. Multiple state and local partners.
The complete benefits package — including ceremony participation, branded recognition channels, activation reporting, statewide announcement materials, and platform integration — is unveiled on the founder call.
- “Presented by” naming on every Certificate of Honor across all 50 U.S. state capital ceremonies + international sister cities
- 3-year commitment (2026–2028) · rate-locked for the full term
- Permanent legacy clause — founding-partner status remains on the historical record in perpetuity, even if not renewed at Year 3
- Right of First Refusal at end of Year 3 — renewal control locked in before any competitor is offered
This tier is the natural fit for Western & Southern Financial Group.
“Presented by” placement on a specific state’s Certificate of Honor. One per state, permanent for the activation cycle.
1-, 2-, or 3-year terms available. Statewide announcement materials. CivicByApp Pilot Sandbox introductions to qualified municipalities in the state.
Multiple sub-state sponsorships available at every level — region, county, township, city. Customizable footprint and term.
For sponsors who want highly-localized brand activation tied to specific communities.
The activation extends beyond U.S. borders.
Indianapolis activates eleven international sister cities — Campinas (Brazil), Cologne (Germany), Hangzhou (China), Hyderabad (India), Le Mans (France), Monza (Italy), Northamptonshire (UK), Onitsha (Nigeria), Piran (Slovenia), Santiago de Querétaro (Mexico), Taipei (Taiwan). The Founding National & Global Partner is named on the international civic record alongside every U.S. state capital ceremony.
↓ Why this fits Western & Southern specifically.
Why this resonates with Western & Southern.
Western & Southern is invited to claim the Founding National & Global Partner sponsorship — the single exclusive partner across all 50 state capital ceremonies. The same “people helping people” ethic that has guided Western & Southern’s community work for 136 years, expressed in permanent civic recognition. Mary L. Aurtrey makes the alignment especially clear:
↓ The founder’s commitment, in his own words.
Why I’m building this.
And what I owe the leaders who built before me.
Civic work is the most important work in America. It’s also the hardest to find online.
For thirteen years I’ve been building infrastructure for the people who run America’s communities — mayors, city managers, nonprofit founders, small-business owners, library directors, public-works chiefs. People who do extraordinary work with tools that haven’t kept up with the responsibility.
The reach gap has held for two decades. We’re closing it.
“We are not coming to disrupt your work. We are coming to amplify it.”
HeroByApp™ is the activation engine for the trusted civic layer. We start with a Sergeant Major in Indianapolis on June 17. We finish with all fifty states.
“Not as a credential. As a commitment. There is no other agenda.”
↓ The path from this conversation to permanent civic record.
From handshake to permanent record in 32 days.
Schedule the founder call →15 minutes with Jerome Mark Mikulich, Founder & CEO. The founder call covers the Founding National & Global Partner structure (3-year commitment + legacy clause + Right of First Refusal), the complete sponsor benefits package across all 50 state activations, ceremony participation details for State #1 (Indiana, June 17), and Western & Southern’s path to Founding Partner designation. Curated and introduced by Joel Clelland.
What the path looks like
What sponsors typically want to know.
Eight questions Joel will be ready to answer in the room.
How is this different from event sponsorship or stadium naming rights?
Event sponsorships expire when the event ends. Stadium naming rights are tied to a physical asset. The Founding 50 is a permanent civic record — the sponsor is named on every Certificate of Honor across all 50 state capitals, and that record persists in perpetuity. It is the only sponsorship instrument that pairs branded recognition with permanent civic infrastructure.
What happens at the end of Year 3 if Western & Southern does not renew?
The legacy clause activates. Western & Southern remains permanently named as the Founding National & Global Partner of the inaugural cohort — on the historical record, in perpetuity. There is no downside risk to founding-partner status. Future ceremonies after Year 3 would feature a renewal partner alongside the founding designation.
What is the relationship between HeroByApp™, CityByApp™, and ByApp.ai?
HeroByApp™ is the recognition program — the ceremonies and the Founding 50.
CityByApp™ is the verified civic publishing platform that the ceremony activates — live in 25 U.S. markets with 276,299 verified profiles across 170+ countries.
ByApp.ai is the AI infrastructure layer underneath — the sovereign-grade orchestration that powers the platform’s nine civic modules.
What problem does this actually solve for cities and citizens?
A typical U.S. municipality runs 15 to 20 disconnected software vendors — citizen reporting, procurement, payments, mapping, analytics, audit logging — each with its own subscription, login, and data silo. Citizens get fragmented service. Taxpayer dollars get spent on overlapping tools that don’t talk to each other.
CityByApp™ consolidates the verified civic information layer. The CivicByApp™ Pilot Sandbox introduces nine modular replacements for the point solutions cities are already paying for. Less tech-stack waste. One trusted source. One audit trail.
What does CivicAudit™ actually do?
CivicAudit™ is the tamper-evident audit log layer of the future CivicByApp™ 2.0 platform (Pilot Sandbox opening Q4 2026 / Q1 2027 for qualified municipalities). Hash-chained, cryptographically anchored.
Not part of BETA 1.0. BETA today is the verified publishing platform — free profiles + the ability for verified agencies, nonprofits, and businesses to publish trusted content directly to citizens. CivicAudit™ becomes available for municipalities that join the Pilot Sandbox.
For sponsors: every brand-placement and activation event on BETA 1.0 is already logged today, so reporting is verifiable, not self-reported — with CivicAudit™ hardening the audit chain in 2.0.
How do citizens actually experience the platform?
The platform delivers verified civic content through every modern surface citizens already use:
- Web — CityByApp™.com unified civic directory and publishing platform
- Native mobile apps — iOS and Android, with the same verified content as the web
- AI assistant — ByApp.ai conversational interface for natural-language civic queries
- Civic maps — MapsByApp™ unified geospatial layer for verified entities, services, and events
- Augmented reality — AR-powered discovery of civic and business information in real-world contexts
- Voice & conversational — verified data accessible through voice assistants
Citizens today juggle 10–15 disconnected apps and websites to navigate civic life. One verified publishing layer replaces them all — stakeholders publish once; citizens find it everywhere.
How does verification actually work?
Identity verification + verified publishing is what BETA 1.0 is — the live offering today, not a feature roadmap item. Every entity that activates on the platform passes identity verification before going live, then publishes real, current content to citizens.
- Tier 1 (automatic, live in BETA 1.0): domain email match, phone OTP, IRS Pub 78 (nonprofits), .gov / .us TLD (civic) — most claims clear in under two minutes.
- Tier 2 (manual, live in BETA 1.0): document upload, admin queue with risk scoring — SLA 24–48 hours.
- Tier 3 (hardened, 2.0): KYB / KYC, DNS proof, behavioral biometrics, annual re-attestation.
Verified entities then get a free profile and start publishing notices, events, jobs, real estate, services, products, and deals directly to citizens — through one trusted source, not social media or search engines. Sponsors’ brands never appear next to an unverified entity.
The receipts, the architecture, the contacts.
Mission
To honor one extraordinary community leader in every U.S. state capital — and through that honor, activate the civic infrastructure that serves every citizen, community, nonprofit, and business in their state.
- Indianapolis — Inaugural ceremony June 17, 2026
- Mary L. Aurtrey — First of the Founding 50
- 25 U.S. markets · 276,299 verified members · 170+ countries
Vision
50 heroes. 50 states. One ceremony at a time — building the trusted civic platform that connects every citizen, community, nonprofit, and business to the tools they deserve.
- 2026 — Indiana, State #1
- 2027–2028 — The Founding 10 cohort
- 2029 — Founding 50 complete
- 2030+ — International expansion via sister cities
The Tech Stack
- ByApp.ai — AI orchestration layer
- CivicByApp — civic governance OS + identity
- Nine modules — ReportByApp, BidByApp, WalletByApp, SecureByApp, RealtyByApp, GridByApp, AnalyticsByApp, MapsByApp, CivicAudit
- CityByApp — customer-facing deployments
- ByApp Exchange — cross-deployment data ecosystem
CommanderByApp AI runs on a four-step Permission Ladder: Read → Draft → Recommend → Execute.
The Founder
Jerome Mark Mikulich · Founder & CEO · CityByApp™ Inc. × ByApp.ai · 13 years building civic infrastructure · President’s Volunteer Service Award · Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award (twice).
Contact
Curator: Joel Clelland · Strategic Advisor
Founder: Jerome Mark Mikulich
ceo@citybyapp.com
citybyapp.com/herobyapp
Sponsor Brief
2 pages. The conversation starter for senior decision-makers. Download Sponsor Brief (PDF) →
Founding Partner Brief
2 pages. The deeper conversation document for Founding Partner discussions. Download Founding Partner Brief (PDF) →
Confidential. Prepared exclusively for Western & Southern Financial Group. Curated and presented by Joel Clelland, Strategic Advisor to the HeroByApp™ Community Heroes Program.