RELEASE: EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson Honored at Great Outdoors America Week
Contact:
Jackie Ostfeld, Sierra Club, 202-821-8877, Jackie.ostfeld@sierraclub.org
Kristina Ortez de Jones, Sierra Club, 505-206-9629 Kristina.ortez@sierraclub.org
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson Honored at Great Outdoors America Week
WASHINGTON, DC (June 28, 2012) – EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson was honored as one of America’s Great Outdoors Champions during Great Outdoors America Week (June 25-29, 2012) in Washington, DC. Sierra Club youth participants from Baltimore presented the award to the Administrator at a special event celebrating the President’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative.
Children spend an average of 7.5 hours a day connected to electronic media, and less time getting outside than past generations. Coupling that troubling statistic, nearly 80 percent of children live in urban areas with limited access to outdoor spaces.
“Today’s kids spend less time in nature than all generations that preceded them. They are more likely to recognize Angry Birds than Blue Jays,” says Jacqueline Ostfeld, Mission Outdoors Policy and Operations Manager for the Sierra Club. “We’re glad to team up with Administrator Jackson today to talk to Baltimore students about environmental concepts and careers during the advocacy week."
Hundreds of activists from around the country gathered in DC this week to reach out to their elected leaders about connecting America with the outdoors and the protection of our green places and wild spaces. Visiting with Administrator Jackson were youth from Sierra Club’s Baltimore Inner City Outings group, the Baltimore AP Summer Program, Outdoor Nation and other young delegates participating in Great Outdoors America week.
“Great Outdoors America Week is designed to serve as a big tent for all Americans who care about our country’s wild places and green spaces to come together,” said Michael Carroll, the lead organizer of Great Outdoors America Week. “Sportsmen, veterans, school children, conservationists, business leaders, local elected officials, recreationists--we all care about and have an interest in the future of America’s great outdoors.”
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About Sierra Club
Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. Inspired by nature, we are 1.4 million of your friends and neighbors, working together to protect our communities and the planet. Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors program is working to reconnect America with the outdoors. Read more at http://www.sierraclub.org/missionoutdoors
About Great Outdoors America Week
Great Outdoors America Week offers opportunity for advocates to take direct action on a number of conservation issues, ranging from wilderness and national monument protection to reconnecting inner-city kids to the great outdoors. Great Outdoors America Week serves as another example of the long-standing, bipartisan tradition of conservation in the United States.
