Youth Nominations To Open for DR. WANGARI MAATHAI AWARD FOR CIVIC PARTICIPATION IN SUSTAINABILITY Tomorrow!

NYC Parks Commissioner Veronica White, New York Restoration Project Executive Director Amy Freitag, Rockefeller Foundation’s Associate Director of the New York City Opportunities Fund Eddie Torres, Chair of Green Belt Movement U.S. Mia MacDonald, and Municipal Art Society President Vin Cipolla will announce the inauguration of the Dr. Wangari Maathai Award for Civic Participation in Sustainability. The announcement will take place in Morningside Park, in front of the Dr. Wangari Maathai Tree on Friday, October 5, 2012 at 10:00 am. Morningside Park is located at Morningside Avenue between West 120th and 121st Streets on Staten Island.

This annual $10,000 award will be given to one female and one male public high school senior. The winners will have demonstrated evidence of their academic and extracurricular commitment to environmental stewardship within the urban context through their development and execution of sustainability-themed projects (for example, recycling, energy monitoring, parks stewardship, greening).

Dr. Wangari Maathai is the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize (2004). Dr. Maathai was a visionary environmentalist and founder of the Green Belt Movement, a tree-planting campaign to promote sustainable development, woman's empowerment, and democracy in Kenya.

Please visit www.nyc.gov/parks for more information.

Photo Credit: Daniel Avila

More Articles by This Author...