Six outstanding young environmental leaders from across the United
States have been named recipients of the 2003 Brower Youth Awards, the
nation’s most prestigious recognition of environmental activists aged
13-22. Awardees were chosen from applicants whose work on behalf of
communities and the environment epitomizes the principles of
Conservation, Preservation and Restoration, what Earth Island Institute
founder David Ross Brower called “CPR for the Earth.”
“David Brower would have been proud to see these young leaders
recognized for their accomplishments,” said Earth Island Executive
Director David Phillips. “Our hope is that their participation in this
program supports them in making environmental activism a lifelong
commitment.”
The Brower Youth Awards are the only national environmental awards for
youth activists that carry a substantial cash prize and ongoing
leadership development.
2003 Brower Youth Award winners
Rachel Ackoff,
18, of Claremont, California, directed the Fair Trade Campaign for the
Sierra Student Coalition and organized a series of Fair Trade trainings
around the country for local activists, giving them the tools to work
for a global trade system in which the needs of the environment and
workers are protected.
Andrew Azman, 21,
of Owings Mills, Maryland, founded CU Biodiesel at the University of
Colorado, organizing alternative fuels education, and developing and
building biodiesel processors. The group received ongoing funding to
expand and sustain their pilot program of fueling University buses with
biodiesel.
Whitney Cushing, 16,
of Homer, Alaska, founded the first youth environmental group on the
Kenai Peninsula, which created the first recycling program in the
region, lobbied to stop offshore oil and gas development, and helped
impose limits on chain-store development in the city of Homer.
Andrew Hunt, 21,
of Bethesda, Maryland, formed a statewide network of student
environmentalists to lobby for better environmental policy in Maryland.
The group, 200 strong after just one year, successfully worked to save
Chapman Forest and make public transit a priority in the state’s
request for Federal transportation funds.
Illai Kenney, 14,
of Jonesboro, Georgia, co-founded Georgia Kids against Pollution in
response to the growing numbers of local children with asthma. The
group organizes protests and conferences and makes speeches to educate
and encourage citizens to work for clean air and water, and help curb
global warming.
Thomas Nichols, 14,
of Corrales, New Mexico, conceived and implemented a program to
preserve the fragile Rio Grande ecosystem by wrapping cottonwood trees
in chicken wire to protect them from beavers. The program replaced a
policy of killing beavers to save the trees.
In addition to receiving $3,000 cash awards, the six winners will be
honored at a ceremony hosted by Paul Hawken on September 25 in
Berkeley, CA. The recipients will also participate in a three-day
“Wilderness Encounter” in Yosemite National Park, sponsored by Clif
Bar, Inc., and led by Bay Area Wilderness Training, a project of Earth
Island Institute.
Earth Island established the Brower Youth Awards in 2000 to honor David
Brower and to recognize a new generation of leaders who follow in his
footsteps. In his long career, Dave served as an inspiration and mentor
to four generations of environmentalists, many of whom—such as Amory
Lovins, Dave Foreman and Julia Butterfly Hill—have become well-known
in their own right. The Awards program is the core of Earth Island’s
Brower New Leaders Initiative, which helps past award winners develop
their work and encourages others to take up David Brower’s mantle of
leadership.
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