I, personally, would not be too inclined to take a shop with a 'hero citation', or some other pat on the back type of thing. It has been my experience that it doesn't mean a whole lot....if they really need help with the shop, and you are going to go out of your way to help them, then they need to pay you a bonus to do it and not rely on the fairly meaningless citations.
I accepted a couple of 'hero citation' shops when I was first starting, thinking that it would mean more jobs or better jobs coming my way. Not so much...all it means it that they gave me a '10', or perfect shop score, to add into my average rating. As my average rating wavers back and forth between a 9 and a 10, this did absolutely nothing for me. (Particularly as most msc's ask that your minimum shop score be a 5 to be eligible for shops.)
As for the schedulers, are you signed up for emails? I have developed a reptutation of sorts with several of them by simply replying to their shop listing emails. There are about 6 of them, from 6 different companies that I work with monthly because they know where I will go, and I have helped them out before. Sometimes letting them know that you can take a shop, just not by their posted due date will help them avoid calling all around to fill it later, and that can get you some email offers in the future.
I'm in a fairly rural location, and I do routes in all four directions that take me to even more rural locations that they have issues filling. Thus far, that has meant that the schedulers have me on their lists and that I usually get larger bonuses for driving.