What is the Community Heroes Award?

Each winter the Crissy Field Center announces open nominations for its most prestigious awards program – The Community Heroes Award.  This award honors the accomplishments, challenges and successes of community members who work tirelessly to preserve, protect, and raise awareness about our environment.

• Selection Process
• Past Winners
• Nominations

How are Heroes selected?

The Center's Community Advisors selects Community Heroes from your nominations.  Heroes who are selected are honored with a ceremony at Crissy Field Center on Thursday, May 20, 2010, where we unveil digital stories about each Hero that share their unique experiences making positive environmental change in their communities.

In addition to the Community Heroes Award, the Ryan Jones Park Hero Award will be designated in memory of a very special young man.  Ryan Jones was the Volunteer and Education Coordinator for the Site Stewardship Program at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.  He inspired numerous students as well as his colleagues with his dedication to the parks, love of the outdoors and natural resources, leadership of young people and volunteers, and his amazing gift to explore, capture and exude the beauty of life.  The Ryan Jones Park Hero Award will be awarded each year to someone who has made significant contributions to the preservation and enjoyment of the Golden Gate National Parks.

This is an opportunity for unsung heroes and community leaders to share the limelight and receive well-deserved recognition for their valuable contributions and positive impact regarding the environment. 

Who are Community Heroes?

Community Heroes are people from all over the Bay Area and from all walks of life.  They come from all races, ethnic backgrounds and age groups, working in common to protect, restore, and raise awareness for the environmental issues that are relevant to their communities.  Many are engaged in grass-roots activism, others work on legislation, and several are educators.  Many call themselves volunteers, while others have built careers working in the environmental movement. 

Whatever their approach, methodology, or position, they all fit one very important criterion: their work has made a positive impact on the community and has inspired others to get involved and make a difference.  Previous Community Heroes include:

• Youth United for Community Action (YUCA), a grassroots organization created, led, and run by young people in East Palo Alto.  After a twenty-year battle, YUCA successfully shut down operations of Romic Environmental Technologies—a recycler of toxic chemical waste—which had been operating without a permit and jeopardizing the health of the neighborhood residents.
• Founder Barbara Wenger and members of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Parks Group, who transformed a dilapidated Koshland Park, frequented by drug-dealers and prostitutes to a lush tree-lined oasis—with outdoor education programs—for the entire neighborhood.
• Robert Pinkard, owner of Surfside Liquors located in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco, was the first store owner in his neighborhood to stock fresh produce in an effort to help residents access healthy and nutritious food.

How Can I Help?

The Crissy Field Center is now accepting nominations for the 2010 Community Heroes and Ryan Jones Park Hero Awards.  We are asking you to think about individuals or groups in the San Francisco Bay Area who have made a positive impact and inspired others with their single action or on-going work.  If you feel their story is compelling and worthy of recognition, please sponsor their nomination for the Community Heroes Awards Program by completing the enclosed form.

There can be no Community Heroes without you!  Help us acknowledge the heroes among us and submit a nomination. Tell us about the work they have done, are currently doing, and why they should be recognized. See the resources at right to download and view the nomination form. 

Nominations must be received no later than February 28, 2010.