 FOR EARTH DAY AND EVERY DAY, THE GLORIA BARRON PRIZE FOR YOUNG HEROES
ENCOURAGES KIDS TO SAVE THE PLANET The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes celebrates inspiring, public-spirited young people from diverse backgrounds all across North America. Established in 2001 by author T.A. Barron, the Barron Prize annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders ages 8 to 18 who have made a significant positive impact on people, animals or the environment. The top fifteen winners each receive $5,000 to support their service work or higher education. For more information, visit www.barronprize.org Apply The Barron Prize welcomes applications from public-spirited young people who are, on our April 15 deadline:
Alison age 17, California Alison founded Purses for Primates, a non-profit that has raised over $27,000 to protect orangutans and their shrinking habitat. She collects gently-used handbags from across the U.S., resells them at fundraising events, and donates 100% of the proceeds to Orangutan Outreach, a New York City-based conservation group. She is a founding member of the group’s extensive children’s program, Forest School 101, and serves as the program’s current ambassador. Delaney age 16, Florida Delaney founded The Sink or Swim Project to educate young people and adults about the growing risks of global warming and sea level rise. A resident of Miami, where sea level rise is already evident, she gathered data from places like NASA and NOAA to create several PowerPoint presentations, which she has delivered to over 10,000 children, senior citizens, and policy makers. National Geographic recently recorded one of her presentations for their Years of Living Dangerously TV show, to air later this year. Hannah age 15, Florida Hannah invented a device that converts the kinetic energy of ocean tides into usable electricity. Her BEACON -- Bringing Electricity Access to Countries through Ocean eNergy -- is made from 90% recycled materials easily found throughout the world, including 2-liter bottles and recycled spoons. The device costs $12 to make and can produce enough electricity to power an LED light bulb. Hannah envisions BEACON being used in developing countries to power desalination pumps (for fresh water), run centrifuges (to test blood), and power electric buoys (for maritime navigation). Martin age 15, New York Martin created Save the Seals, a campaign to raise awareness about the plight of harp seal pups and the Arctic ecosystem as a whole. He has raised nearly $17,000 for the Humane Society of the United States’ Protect Seals program by creating and selling seal-themed crafts. He has made over 4,000 bracelets and over 3,000 polymer clay seals that he uses in his key chains, ornaments, and figurines. In selling his wares at craft shows, Martin speaks with hundreds of people about the seal hunt, its causes, and its cruelty. He explains that 98% of the seals killed are under three months of age, not yet able to swim or walk and helpless in the face of hunters. Maya age 17, Ontario, Canada Maya created 400 PPM, a documentary film that tells the story of her expedition to the Arctic where she witnessed climate change firsthand. She titled her film for the 2013 atmospheric measurement of carbon dioxide at 400 parts per million (ppm), the highest levels in more than 2.5 million years. Her film focuses on the Arctic’s Inuit people, whose lives have been dramatically impacted by a warming climate and melting ice. She produced her film through STAMx Youth Inc., a non-profit she founded to use Science, Technology, Arts, and Math to empower young people to take action against climate change. Story age 17, Washington Story created Kids4Wolves to educate young people about wolves and to promote coexistence between wolf advocates and those who oppose wolf recovery. She does much of her outreach online via her website’s blog and Instagram account, where nearly every day, she posts facts, photos, and wolf updates for nearly 20,000 followers. Xerxes age 17, New York Xerxes led a four-year project to mitigate water contamination caused by a farm’s animal waste leaching into New York City’s public reservoir system. He overhauled the farm’s vast gutter and sewer network to redirect two tons of manure each year. His work at Muscoot Farm, a 777-acre county-run farm populated by rare breeds of cows, pigs, and chickens, also included clearing entire fields of invasive plants and protecting native bird species. Additionally, he and his team of 125 volunteers created a ¼ mile educational nature trail and constructed a hands-on environmental learning center to serve the farm’s 135,000 visitors each year. Desmund age 13, California Desmond created Protecting Our Birds in order to preserve and create bird habitat, especially in urban settings, and to educate others about ways to help birds. For the past four years, he has built and monitored bluebird nesting boxes, with his 21 boxes producing 163 fledglings this year. He has presented talks for Audubon chapters, schools, and libraries, reaching nearly 1,000 people. He raised nearly $1,000 to protect a local canyon and wildlife corridor by photographing as many species of birds as he could in one day and collecting donations from Audubon Society members for each bird photographed. Hannah age 13, Georgia Hannah has created a number of initiatives to inspire others to join her in protecting animals and the environment. As a ten-year-old, she raised several thousand dollars in a single evening for the non-profit Save the Horses by organizing a movie night attended by over 300 people. She has created a presentation about plastics pollution and has shared it with nearly 1,000 people, including the Governor of Georgia. She has also convinced a number of local restaurants to switch to an “upon request” policy regarding plastic drinking straws and drink covers. Isabella and Willow age 10, Colorado Twins Isabella and Willow founded Kids Saving Elephants to educate others about the plight of African elephants and to raise money to help fight the ivory trade. They have raised thousands of dollars by selling their handmade elephant greeting cards, lemonade, and cookies at the Aspen Music Festival and Saturday Market each summer, spreading their conservation message to hundreds of people. Comments are closed.
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