CALIFORNIA FIRST LADY MARIA SHRIVER ANNOUNCES REMARKABLE RECIPIENTS OF THE 2007 MINERVA AWARDS
Five Women to be Honored for their Extraordinary Contributions to California and Nation in the Country’s Most Prestigious Awards for Women
LOS ANGELES (October 15th, 2007)—Continuing her tradition of honoring the year’s most remarkable women and highlighting their extraordinary accomplishments, California First Lady Maria Shriver today announced the five recipients of the 2007 Minerva Awards. Shriver will personally present the honorees with their awards in a special ceremony at the California Governor and First Lady’s Conference on Women – or “The Women’s Conference” - in Long Beach this October 23rd in front of an audience of over 14,000. In its fourth year under Shriver’s leadership, the annual non-partisan conference will continue to inspire women to become “architects of change” as it celebrates their remarkable lives and legacies.
Created by Shriver in 2004, the Minerva Awards have become the country’s most prestigious awards for women. Named for the Roman goddess Minerva, who graces the California State Seal, the awards annually honor remarkable women who, in the spirit of Minerva, changed the state and nation with their courage, strength and wisdom. Shriver sought this year to pay tribute to women who are building a legacy and “passing it on” to others.
The 2007 Minerva Awards will be granted to:
- THE HONORABLE NANCY PELOSI, Speaker of the House of Representatives, San Francisco, California
- SWEET ALICE HARRIS, Founder and Executive Director of Parents of Watts, Watts, California
- COMMANDER MAUREEN PENNINGTON, Senior Nurse Executive, United States Naval Medical Center, San Diego, California
- CHRISTY PORTER, Founder and Executive Director of Hidden Harvest, Coachella Valley, California
Shriver has expanded the 2007 awards to extend beyond California to honor a trailblazing woman who has positively impacted the U.S. and world. This year, that award goes to Shriver’s mother, MRS. EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER, Executive Vice President of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and Founder and Honorary Chair of Special Olympics International, who is receiving a Minerva Award for Lifetime Achievement. Mrs. Shriver was nominated by the 21-member Minerva Nominating Committee for her tireless efforts to improve the lives of intellectually disabled people.
“The 2007 Minerva Award winners have all served, each in their own way, on the frontlines of humanity. Each of these remarkable women recognized a problem or challenge, identified a solution, and pursued it with courage, perseverance and compassion,” Shriver said. “These women have extraordinary, meaningful legacies that they are passing on to others. The Minerva Awards should inspire women everywhere to embrace those legacies, and move them to build their own.”
Shriver is joined by other esteemed leaders in saluting the Minerva winners. President George Herbert Walker Bush honored Mrs. Harris, President Jimmy Carter honored Ms. Porter, Senator Edward M. Kennedy recognized his sister, Mrs. Shriver, General Colin Powell recognized Commander Pennington and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright honored Speaker Pelosi with personalized statements commending them for their extraordinary contributions to their communities and country.
Shriver is also joined this year by Target, which has partnered with the First Lady and The Women’s Conference to sponsor the Minerva Awards for the fourth year running.
“We could not be more pleased to have Target returning as our official Minerva Sponsor,” said Erin Mulcahy Stein, Executive Director of The Women’s Conference. “Their support helps us highlight the heroic, selfless acts and service of trailblazing women - women who inspire all of us to get involved in our communities, make a difference and serve others.”
The Minerva Award winners are nominated by the Minerva Nominating Committee, a formal body of 21 geographically, ethnically and professionally diverse women who work together to research and vet potential candidates. Shriver selects the winners from the slate of candidates put forth by the committee.
Past award recipients have included former First Lady Betty Ford (’05), Olympian Anita de Frantz (’05), Astronaut Sally Ride (’06), criminal justice champion Dr. Mimi Silbert (’04) and family literacy pioneer, Sister Jennie Lechtenberg (’05).
The 2007 Minerva Award Winners
“Sweet” Alice Harris
Over forty years ago, “Sweet Alice” Harris, now 73, began serving disadvantaged youth and families out of her Watts home after witnessing the 1965 riots. What started as an informal, home-based initiative to ease racial friction in Harris’ diverse neighborhood is today a fifteen program organization called Parents of Watts, or POW, operating out of eight houses. Though its numerous services include homeless shelters, parent training classes, immunization programs and employment trainings, one of POW’s central tenets is keeping kids off drugs and in school. In jail at 12, a mother at 14, homeless by 16, Harris, who turned her life around with the support of a caring family, can relate to her clients. Harris asks a simple question of people hedging about lending a hand: “Do you want to be part of the building crew or the wrecking crew?”
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Representative Nancy Pelosi broke the marble ceiling in January when she became the first woman to serve as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Before her election to Congress 20 years ago, Speaker Pelosi served as Chair of the California Democratic Party. A tireless crusader for international human rights, Speaker Pelosi has always been a staunch advocate for women, children, families and the disabled. She led the fight to preserve San Francisco’s Presidio, worked to secure increased funding for breast cancer and HIV/AIDS research and treatment, fought to eliminate the wage gap between men and women’s earnings and has been an ardent champion for Title IX and equality in education for girls.
Commander Maureen Pennington
With more than 20 years of active duty, U.S. Navy nurse Maureen Pennington is the first Nurse Corps officer to command a surgical company in Iraq. She was awarded a Bronze Star for her service in Fallujah, Iraq for managing teams of life-saving doctors, nurses, hospital corpsmen and Marines in a string of trauma centers located just 10 minutes by helicopter from battle lines. Under Pennington’s leadership, the facilities’ survival rate for combat-wounded patients rose to an unprecedented 98 percent. A mother of two, Pennington served as an operating room nurse during the 1990 Gulf War and has volunteered seven times to help the nonprofit Operation Smile provide reconstructive cleft lip and cleft palate surgery to children in developing countries. Now the Senior Nurse Executive at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Maureen aspires to one day command a naval hospital.
Christy Porter
Christy Porter, a former photojournalist and the founder and Executive Director of Hidden Harvest, is tackling hunger in California’s Coachella Valley and her successes are measurable. Since its inception, Porter’s unique, effective program, which hires local, low-income farm workers to rescue produce left behind in fields after growers finish harvesting their crops, has donated nearly three million pounds of food to those in need. The organization serves 10,000 families or more each month through 61 local agencies in addition to running its own food bank. Hidden Harvest also creates jobs for Valley workers: more than $25,000 in wages go into the pockets of the working poor each year for their help harvesting the produce.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver – Lifetime Achievement
Through her service as Executive Vice President of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and Founder and Honorary Chair of Special Olympics International, Eunice Kennedy Shriver has launched an international movement demonstrating that intellectually disabled persons are capable of remarkable achievements and deserve the same opportunities and experiences as others.
Shriver was the driving force behind President Kennedy's creation of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development in 1962; helped reform Civil Service regulations to require persons with intellectual disabilities to be hired on the basis of their overall ability, rather than just their test scores; established major centers for the study of medical ethics at Harvard University and Georgetown University; founded "Community of Caring," a character education program adopted by more than 1,200 public and private schools throughout the nation. She also now serves on the Board of Directors of Best Buddies, which was founded by her son Anthony in 1989.
Above all, Eunice is renowned for her landmark creation of Special Olympics, which has grown and thrived since its 1962 founding in her Maryland backyard. Today, Special Olympics is a global phenomenon, sponsored by one of the world's largest corps of volunteers, and including 2.5 million athletes in 165 countries. “Her generosity of spirit is boundless, her grace is extraordinary, and she has brought unparalleled hope and unprecedented opportunity to literally millions of persons throughout the world,” said Senator Edward M. Kennedy of his sister.
The Minerva Museum Exhibit, Sacramento
The achievements of Minerva Award winners are chronicled in a permanent, conference-funded exhibit at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento, and become part of California’s official archive. For more information on the Museum, please go to www.californiamuseum.org.
About The Women’s Conference
The Women’s Conference is the largest and most dynamic one-day gathering of women in the nation. Recognized for its unparalleled capacity to inspire and empower women to become architects of change, the annual conference unites more than sixty leaders with 14,000 women in one arena, plus thousands more virtually, to share enriching stories of transformation and success, words of encouragement and life lessons.
Under the leadership of California First Lady Maria Shriver, the non-profit, non-partisan women’s conference has grown from a California government initiative for working professionals into a life-changing experience and national network of women from all walks of life, backgrounds and perspectives. Its thriving online community and year round programs make The Women’s Conference an ongoing source of support, inspiration and motivation for the tens of thousands it has touched.
For more information on The Women’s Conference or the Minerva Awards, please go to www.californiawomen.org.
About Target
Minneapolis-based Target serves guests at 1,444 stores in 47 states nationwide by delivering today’s best retail trends at affordable prices. Target (NYSE:TGT) gives back more than $3 million a week to its local communities through grants and special programs. Since opening its first store in 1962, Target has partnered with nonprofit organizations, guests and team members to help meet community needs.
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