The Corps Network Honors U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva for introducing the Public Lands Service Corps Act
Rep. Raul Grijalva accepts his Congressional Champion Award and shakes hands with Alex Hreha, a 2013 Corpsmember of the Year from the Coconino Rural Environment Corps (CREC)
For Immediate Release
2/21/13
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In recognition of his support for the Public Lands Service Corps Act, Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona’s 3rd District was awarded one of The Corps Network’s highest honors, the Congressional Champion Award, at a ceremony in the Cannon House Office Building on Wednesday, February 13, 2013.
Every year, The Corps Network presents the Congressional Champion Award to elected officials whose work promotes and encourages the growth and sustainability of America’s youth service and conservation corps. The Corps Network selected Congressman Grijalva for a 2013 Congressional Champion Award for his unwavering support of the Public Lands Service Corps Act, which would expand opportunities for youth to serve their country in national parks and forests, as well as other public lands, while similtaneously addressing a backlog of maintenance projects.
Since Representative Grijalva’s election to Congress in 2002, education, job creation, employee rights and the environment have been among his top policy concerns. Representative Grijalva is a member of the Committee on Natural Resources, where he is the Ranking Member of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee. The Subcommittee oversees 600 million acres of federal land. As Chairman of the Subcommittee in the 111th Congress, he played the leading role in creating a permanent National Landscape Conservation System within the Department of the Interior and fought successfully to address the maintenance funding shortfall of American public lands.
“We wish to thank Representative Grijalva for his support of the Public Lands Service Corps Act. It will help many young people gain valuable work experience and develop job skills while completing projects that improve some of our nation’s most treasured national parks, forests, seashores, and wildlife refuges as part of a Youth Corps program. This is a combination of positive outcomes that we can all appreciate,” said Mary Ellen Ardouny, President and CEO of The Corps Network.
Immediately following The Corps Network’s February 13th award ceremony, Representative Grijalva accepted the Congressional Champion Award at his office in the Longworth House Office Building. Corpsmembers and staff of Arizona-based youth service and conservation corps presented the award.
“Thank you for this award and for keeping up the fight for a good idea,” said Representative Grijalva. “I won’t really feel the job is done until we get the Public Lands Service Corps Act passed. It won’t happen if we stop working for it, and I’m proud to keep doing that as long as it takes. You can count on me to keep finding ways to promote the bill, to promote successful Corps activities, and to support conservation and volunteerism every day I’m in Congress. I know I can count on you too. Let’s keep it up.”
In addition to the recipients of the Congressional Champion Award, the award ceremony in the Cannon Building also recognized The Corps Network’s 2013 Corpsmembers of the Year and 2013 Projects of the Year. The six Corpsmembers of the Year are young men and women who have stood out as leaders and role models in the corps movement, while the three Project of the Year recipients represented some of the most innovative programs at Corps throughout the country.
Service and conservation corps are comprehensive youth development programs that provide their participants with job training, academic programming, leadership skills, and additional support through a strategy of service that improves communities and the environment. Today’s Corps are a direct descendant of the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, through which three million young men dramatically improved the nation’s public lands while receiving food, shelter, education, and a precious $30-a-month stipend.
About The Corps Network
The Corps Network is the voice of the nation’s 143 Service and Conservation Corps. Currently operating in 44 states and the District of Columbia, Corps annually enroll more than 29,000 young men and women in service every year. Corps mobilize approximately 226,000 community volunteers who in conjunction with Corpsmembers generate 21.3 million hours of service every year. For more information, visit corpsnetwork.org or contact Levi Novey at [email protected] or 202.737.6272.
Media Contact:
Levi Novey
The Corps Network
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Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202.737.6272
Fax: 202.737.6277
Email: [email protected]