Being an IT professional is an under-appreciated job, for sure. They keep our hardware and software up-and-running, protect systems from all kinds of harm, troubleshoot everything from forgotten passwords to inadequate bandwidth, and lots more. But when they do their jobs right, hardly anybody notices.

Now’s your time to rectify that, and notice!

Coming up on July 30 is System Administrator Appreciation Day, an opportunity to celebrate these unsung heroes. Ted Kekatos, an IT professional, created this day back in 2000, inspired by an advertisement by Hewlett-Packard that showed some employees giving a system administrator a fruit basket and flowers after they installed an HP printer. IT organizations and professional societies like the League of Professional System Administrators jumped on board to spread the word, and now it’s an official holiday, recognized by Nationaldaycalendar.com. Retailers like ThinkGeek and CafePress celebrate it with special promotions, too.

Here are some ideas for celebrating the sysadmins in your life:

• Heartfelt greeting cards—with gift card enclosures
• A pizza party in the employee break room – hold the pineapple! (Or don’t.)
• Balloon bouquet. Who can resist an opportunity to play with helium?
• Big bags of fun-size candy bars. Splurge and get the good stuff.
• Hats and t-shirts that commemorate the occasion
• Cake! Make sure all the words are spelled correctly on the icing. They’ll notice.
• Lunch from a local deli or Chinese restaurant.
• A feature in the employee newsletter profiling some of the all-star IT folks
• Gift baskets with coffee, “World’s Greatest IT Pro” mugs,

But the best thing of all that you can do for the IT professionals who serve you and your organization is just to say Thank You! Let them know that you appreciate the work they do to build and maintain the IT systems that you use every day.