Award of Achievement Honorees

January 21, 2006 - For more than fifteen years, higher caste thugs, with tacit police support, killed, robbed, raped and terrorized Dalit women in the central Indian village of Nagpur. It was only when twenty-seven year old college graduate Usha Madhukar Narayane returned home on vacation did her bravery in confronting the bullies give courage to prior victims and together they took the law into their own hands to end the barbarity.

November 27, 2005 - Alarmed by the fact that pharmaceutical companies, using a sales force of over 80,000 representatives spends more than $13,000 per physician each year to induce them to provide samples of the most expensive new medications to their patients, often at the expense of good medical practices, Dr. Bob Goodman formed No Free Lunch in 1999 to urge physicians to refuse all gift offers from drug companies.

October 21, 2005 - The five-part Los Angeles Times series, Life on Skid Row, by Steve Lopez, exposes the ongoing tragedy on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, where ten thousand people, half of them mentally ill, struggle nightly for survival. Hopefully, the harsh spotlight of his journalism will force this city and its citizens to confront and cure this tragic problem.

October 11, 2005 - Mark Hanis, grandson of four Holocaust survivors, immediately upon graduating Swathmore, founded the Genocide Intervention Project in response to the atrocities in the Sudan. In its first year, it has raised $250,000 to help stop the rape of Darfur women, is lobbying for bipartisan Congressional actin for sanctions on Sudan, has inspired more than one hundred colleges to raise money for the fund and given real meaning to the vow, "Never Again".

September 3, 2005 - Steve Emerson, through The Investigative Project that he formed in 1995 and his documentary "Jihad in America" has exposed the threat of Osama Bin Laden's network and other Islamic militant groups operating in the United States and their connections worldwide. Nearly every one of the terrorist suspects and groups that he has identified have been prosecuted or deported since 9/11.

September 2, 2005 - Although not deaf himself, Kevin Long founded The Global Deaf Connection in 1997 to cure the injustice of discrimination against the deaf community in developing countries. Using resources from developed nations to support, mentor and train teachers, he is encouraging deaf students to gain higher education and become trained professionals, thereby enabling them to lead a productive life.

August 15, 2005 - In a world where every five seconds a child dies of hunger, Dr. Andre Briend has invented Plumpy'nut, a nutrient supplement that has revolutionized emergency health care for severely malnourished children. Rather than hospitalization, children can now be treated by their mother at home with this sealed package resistant to disease causing germs, often gaining two pounds per week and regaining their strength.

August 13, 2005 - Cindy Sheehan co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace when she learned that her son had been killed in Iraq. Seeking the return of our troops and questioning the reasons for the war that has brought tens of thousands of deaths, she has camped out on the road leading to the Bush ranch where the President is vacationing, thereby crystallizing the growing feeling in our country that the war has been a tragic mistake and must be ended.

August 3, 2005 - In 1959, officials in Prince Edward County, Virginia, chained the public schools rather than allow black children to sit beside whites. Now, almost fifty years later, James Kendrick Woodley III has led the effort to cause the state to confront its racist past and in effect apologize by offering reparations in the form of scholarships to those that had been denied an education.

July 23, 2005 - Many theories, but few facts, abound regarding the reason for attacks by Islamic zealots upon targets throughout the world. MEMRI, founded by Yigal Carmon, through its timely translations of the hate-filled statements and slanderous accusations, allows us to know what is being preached in the mosques and written in the media of the Arab world.

April 22, 2005 - Wanting every returning serviceman and woman to receive a hero's welcome, for nearly two years, Bill Knight and his neighbors in Maine Troop Greeters have met every military flight returning to Bangor's small international airport, enthusiastically welcoming more than one thousand flights and almost two hundred thousand troops.

April 14, 2005 - Ten years ago, David Kaczynski faced a dilemma when he suspected that his brother was the Unabomber. In order to save other lives, he told authorities of his suspicions and then fought to keep him from being sentenced to death. Because of this experience, he founded New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty and has led the campaign to ensure that others in his state would not face the possibility of execution.

March 21, 2005 - The lifetime of activism of Reverend William Sloane Coffin, as a Freedom Rider fighting segregation in the South, as a forceful voice against the War in Vietnam, nuclear proliferation and our policies in Iraq, is considered by many to be the moral conscience of his country.

January 17, 2005 - Michael Josephson, feeling it is imperative that we alter the moral trajectory in all parts of our life, founded The Josephson Institute of Ethics in 1987 to create programs that have influenced one hundred thousand business professionals, virtually all amateur athletic associations and millions of young people in schools throughout the country.

January 6, 2005 - Brittany and Robbie Berquist, only fourteen and twelve years old, founded Cell Phones for Soldiers, which by collecting old cellular phones and selling them to companies that refurbish them for resale, has in only nine months provided $250,000 worth of prepaid calling cards to enable American soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait to call home.

December 6, 2004 - Within hours after the fraudulent results of the November 21st Ukrainian runoff were announced, Vadyslav Kaskiv, the founder of the youth movement, Pora, meaning "It's Time", has led tens of thousands of Ukrainians in the highly visible, round-the-clock "Orange Revolution" that has reversed the political dynamic and forced a new election for Prime Minister of the Ukraine.

November 29, 2004 - In a white, Christian and very fundamentalist town of 1,600 in Tennessee, Linda Hooper, David Smith and Sandra Roberts were concerned that the students in their middle school had little opportunity to practice religious and racial acceptance. The new documentary, Paper Clips, tells the story of the project they undertook in 1998 to help their students comprehend the enormity of the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis in World War II.

November 22, 2004 - Twenty-seven years ago, Reverend Cecil L. "Chip" Murray joined the small First AME Church in Los Angeles as pastor. Now, as he retires, the his exhortations to his congregants to take the high road and fulfill their responsibility to those less fortunate have transformed the congregation into a religious and civic powerhouse.

November 22, 2004 - Feeling that he could help cancer patients learn the vital skills that would enable them to regain control, reduce isolation and restore hope regardless of the stage of the disease, Dr. Harold Benjamin created the Wellness Community. His dream has now grown form one small facility in California to twenty-one throughout the United States and two abroad, each providing a home-like setting for people fighting cancer to connect and learn from each other.

November 16, 2004 - Almost fifty years ago, Emmett Till, a fourteen year-old black youngster was kidnapped, tortured and murdered for whistling at a white woman in rural Mississippi...an act that ignited the civil rights movement in America. Two white men were tried for the crime and acquitted, despite the courageous testimony of an eighteen year-old black man, Willie Louis (then known as Willie Reed) who testified as to what really happened.

October 11, 2004 - Rick Ridder is leading the Amendment 36 initiative in Colorado which would amend the state's constitution so that Colorado's electoral votes would be divided in proportion to the popular vote. If successful, it may not only impact the 2004 Presidential election, but it may spur similar moves elsewhere, giving "one person, one vote" true meaning throughout the country.

October 6, 2004 - Concerned that the motivation inexorably pushing us to war in Iraq was a political agenda, not to defend America, Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessin formed Military Families Speak Out with 1700 relatives of American servicemen and women in an effort to sway hearts and minds and bring an end to the war.

September 23, 2004 - When local legislators budgeted huge sums of money with no apparent benefit to citizens, the protest of Saldi Isri and his students led to the filing of criminal charges, the conviction of nearly the entire legislature with a sentence of two years in jail. This type of civic activism in Indonesia is leading to citizens exercising their democratic rights like never before and the transformation of their country.

September 1, 2004 - Richard Kimball founded Project Vote Smart to provide the information to enable citizens to make an informed choice when they vote. By providing nonpartisan information for all members of congress, their votes on the most important issues, their ratings by public interest groups and their receipt of campaign contributions, hopefully, it will also convince those that do not vote that their vote does indeed matter.

August 2, 2004 - For centuries, the world was silent in the face of anti-Jewish teachings of the Catholic Church. Then in 1965, the research of Sister Mary Rose Thering contributed to the "Nostra Aetate" that reversed this theory and declared that the Jews were not responsible for the death of Jesus, thereby greatly advancing reconciliation between the followers of the two religions.

July 21, 2004 - Alice Coles and her neighbors in Bayview, Virginia, one of the most impoverished areas in the country, created the Bayview Citizens for Social Justice to not only defeat the plan to bring a large maximum-security prison in their midst, but to also eliminate their substandard living conditions and remake their community into the rural village it once was.

May 7, 2004 - Many people knew of the heinous abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad, but it was only when Specialist Joseph Darby, a reservist of the 372nd Military Police Company, had the courage to place an anonymous note under the door of a supervisor did the investigation begin that shocked the country and inexorably led to the Congressional hearings to confront the outrage.

April 24, 2004 - Mike and Peggy Conklin created Operation Welcome Home with their neighbors in Danville, California to welcome returning veterans and ease their transition from the military to civilian life. Nineteen other communities in the area have established their own versions and cities across America have indicated an interest in doing the same.

April 24, 2004 - For decades, war-torn Watts in South-Central Los Angeles was the epicenter of gang violence with African-American and Hispanic young men banding into gangs that terrorized their poverty-stricken neighborhoods and the adjacent community. In 1992 Aqeela Sherrills brought the warring factions, the Crips and the Bloods together to hammer out a peace that has held to this day.

April 18, 2004 - As a public school teacher, Jennifer Miller often saw children from families living in poverty without pencils, paper and the most basic tools necessary for them to learn. She quit her job to start KidSmart - Tools for Learning, a "free store" enabling teachers in the St. Louis area to get much needed school supplies for tens of thousands of their students in need.

April 17, 2004 - With no political clout and no money, but with the fierce desire to learn why their husbands were killed, the "Four Moms from New Jersey", Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg and Lorie Van Auken, have become the most effective force for a transparent investigation of what went wrong with the country's defenses a on September 11th and what we should be doing about it.

December 22, 2003 - For the past nine years, The Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy, founded by Frank Lu (Lu Si Qing), and its five thousand members in China has provided the world's media with news of labor disputes, farmers' protests and dissident arrests in China, thereby providing a window allowing people worldwide to know more about this most important country.

December 21, 2003 - Shocked by the Columbine shooting and other acts of violence at schools across America, sixteen year-old high school junior, Brandon Lee Wolff, formed Students Against Violence Everywhere R Us in the hope of bringing the non-violent message to elementary school students.

December 15, 2003 - despite never having visited the Middle East and mindful of the decades of failed negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Alexis Keller brought moderates from both sides together who have built upon the Taba negotiations to hammer out the "Geneva Accord" that confronts all of the problem areas and hopefully will serve as a real road-map for peace in the region.

October 31, 2003 - the new technologies created by ApproTEC, co-founded by Martin Fisher, designed to irrigate small farms, press seeds for cooking oil and aid in low-cost construction, are affordable to buy and easy to operate, enabling tens of thousands of desperately poor people in Kenya to increase their income more than ten-fold and potentially enabling many more to escape pervasive African poverty.

July 12, 2003 - ten years ago, Herman Berman initiated the Bagel Brigade to help feed those in need. Now, early every morning he and as many as one hundred and thirty-five others that he has recruited, gather to assemble the bagels and other bakery products donated by local markets for delivery to schools, churches and other centers where they are distributed to the hungry.

July 7, 2003 - Wes Boyd and Joan Blades created MoveOn.org in 1999 and with only six staffers has become a catalyst for a new kind of grassroots movement enabling concerned citizens to find their political voice on such diverse issues as the war in Iraq, media deregulation and campaign finance. Their online vote for a Democratic presidential candidate allowed more citizens to express their choice than will vote in New Hampshire and Iowa combined.

June 9, 2003 - Despite rights guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution, police officers in large Chinese cities continue to detain, fine and expel downtrodden migrant workers, with no judicial oversight. Xu Zhiyong, Teng Biao and Yu Jiang have filed a petition to the national legislature seeking to enforce guaranteed personal rights, thereby paying homage to the "rule of law" for all.

May 20, 2003 - When the deadly SARS virus swept through Asia and beyond, the Chinese Minister of Health announced that there had been just twelve cases in Beijing and the disease was under control. Knowing that this was false as there were sixty SARS patients in his hospital alone, Dr. Jiang Yanyong, bravely disclosed the truth, alerting the World Health Organization of the depth of the problem, undoubtedly saving thousands of lives.

May 8, 2003 - When the US Government withheld $34,000,000 in aid it had pledged (and had been approved by both houses of Congress) to the UN Population Fund for voluntary family planning and other health services to people in developing countries, Jane Roberts and Lois Abraham (working independently) initiated a campaign imploring thirty-four million fellow citizens to donate one dollar each to honor the pledge.

March 3, 2003 - Former Congressman Tom Andrews has led Win Without War coalition of national organizations representing broad constituencies that aim to keep America safe by advocating alternatives to preemptive war in Iraq. The tremendously creative Virtual March of last week generated over one million telephone calls, faxes and e-mails to government leaders, proof of the growing groundswell building here matching that in the rest of the world.

February 1, 2003 - After unearthing massive corruption that led to the imprisonment of the mayor and the execution of his deputy, Zhou Wei was expelled from the Communist Party and imprisoned. Upon his release, despite stomach cancer, he continues to lead tens of thousands of retired Communist Party cadres demonstrating for the rights that had been guaranteed to them.

December 26, 2002 - After spending 16 of the last 21 years in prison in China, first for being a counter-revolutionary for advocating greater political freedom during the Democracy Wall movement and then for endangering state security for trying to establish the China Democracy Party, Xu Wenli is exiled to the United States...where he plans to continue his efforts toward democracy, freedom and human rights in his homeland.

December 9, 2002 - despairing at the carnage caused by suicide bombers in Israel, Glenn Yago founded Pups for Peace to train dogs to sniff out explosives in the streets, at the bus stops and the cafes in the Jewish state. Hopefully, the mission to detect terror in order to save lives will also help to establish the conditions that will enable Israelis and Palestinians to resume the peace process.

December 2, 2002 - having worked as a street vendor himself, Sean Basinski felt he had to help the ten thousand street vendors on the streets of New York City who were unable to contend with a suffocating bureaucracy. After graduating from Georgetown Law School, he founded the Street Vendor Project to protect these mostly immigrant, small business people, working long hours under harsh conditions to earn an honest living.

November 10, 2002 - Since 1979, when he founded Operation USA, Richard Walden has cajoled corporations to donate $160,000,000 of medical supplies and the cargo planes to distribute them to disaster victims worldwide. Recently he has convinced government scientists to create innovative landmine-removal technology and continues to overcome miniscule financing with an abundance of creativity and style.

October 7, 2002 - Waiting at the bus stop, Rami Mahamid, an Israeli Arab, suspected that the fellow Arab next to him might be a suicide bomber. With great courage, he asked to borrow the suspect's cell phone and stepping away a few steps, alerted the police. When the police arrived, the suspect triggered the bomb, killing himself and the policeman and severely injuring Mahamid, but the great tragedy resulting from the bomb exploding on the bus had been averted.

June 29, 2002 - While driving near Moscow, twenty-seven year old Tatyana Sapunova was confronted by a sign at the side of the road, "Death to Yids". Baptized a Christian, despite Jewish roots, she was nonetheless offended, stopping her car to tear down the sign, but tragically discovering that it was booby-trapped; the explosion ripped wounds that may result in the permanent loss of her left eye.

March 16, 2002 - back in 1979, Rosemary Shahan purchased a defective car and when the dealer refused to fix it and tried to intimidate her from seeking just remedy, she vowed to take action to require equitable treatment for all consumers. The "lemon law" that she inspired in California has become the model for similar legislation in all fifty states, requiring manufacturers to repurchase one hundred thousand defective automobiles yearly.

March 16, 2002 - Nine years ago, Robin and Brandon Keefe were dismayed by the lack of books for many children. Despite the fact that Brandon was then only eight years old, they started Bookends which has inspired fourteen thousand others to join them in their effort which has now provided almost one hundred thousand books to over thirty-five thousand inquisitive young students.

March 8, 2002 - for more than a decade, working alone, John Kamm has researched the cases of political prisoners imprisoned in China and established contacts within the Chinese government that have enabled the release or improvement of conditions of approximately two hundred and fifty prisoners. His dedicated, persistent work has accomplished more than all of the governments of the Western World.

January 27, 2002 - the vision of Bill Strickland and the horticultural expertise of George Vasquez have merged to build a multi-million dollar greenhouse and education center to grow orchids and hydroponic tomatoes while preparing inner-city youngsters for a career. Hopefully, to be replicated elsewhere, it is part of Strickland's goal to change the planet, one neighborhood at a time.

January 12, 2002 - the activism of Rogelio and Yolanda Garcia does not correct a social injustice, but is a lesson in determination and commitment to us all. After losing their jobs ten years ago, they refused welfare and toiled almost all night and half of every day collecting cans and bottles from dumpsters and then selling them in order to support their family and send three children to college.

November 25, 2001 - as a police officer working the night shift in one of the most crime-ridden parts of Los Angeles, John Coughlin, feeling that some young people were trapped in a life of deprivation, founded Operation Progress to provide the funds to enable two deserving young people each year to attend college, the first step toward a meaningful life.

November 8, 2001 - Jessica Russak and other Yeshiva University students she recruited, in the darkest hours of each Sabbath (when Orthodox Jews are prohibited from traveling), within sight of trucks full of body parts of victims of the September 11th World Trade Center tragedy, have been fulfilling the most selfless of Jewish commandments: sitting Shimra to keep watch over the dead who must not be left alone from the moment of passing until burial.

September 23, 2001 - Erin Ross and Larry Harris, II, dismayed that fellow college students distrusted the federal government and felt that politicians were only motivated by selfishness, formed United Students in an effort to inspire college students to look toward politics as a career in which they can effectively work for the common good.

July 14, 2001 - Professor Jan Gross, in his shocking book, Neighbors, the Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, reveals that hundreds of Jews were massacred by their Polish neighbors rather than, as previously thought, by the Nazis. With this knowledge, and with the acknowledgement of this monstrous crime by the President of Poland sixty years later, perhaps a healing process can now begin.

June 26, 2001 - After a lifetime campaigning for peace, including demonstrations against the Cold War with Russia as well as against nuclear weapons, Sisters Dorothy Marie and Gwen L. Hennessey, 88 and 68 year-old Franciscan sisters will soon be leaving their convent for six months in federal prison for trespassing at a US military school that trains Latin American soldiers.

June 20, 2001 - Retiring after years of service as a detective-sergeant, Michael Race began working on his own as a private investigator in order to reverse faulty decisions that convicted innocent men of murders. With the knowledge of how to unravel the defective investigative slipknots, his actions have enabled five men to walk to freedom.

June 6, 2001 - In 1995, Dr. Amram Cohen founded Save a Child's Heart in Israel dedicated to saving sick children around the world. Since then, he and seventy-five other volunteer doctors and nurses have traveled worldwide to perform surgery on more than six hundred and fifty children with diseased or damaged hearts.

June 5, 2001 - For a generation, Vivian Rothstein's sense of social justice motivated her involvement in student protests, the civil rights movement, protests against the Vietnam War and efforts to help the homeless and victims of domestic abuse, culminating now in her leadership in the fight for living wages for employees of luxury hotels in Santa Monica.

May 30, 2001 - For three decades, Robert McIntyre has fought for civil rights, environmental protection and consumer rights. Now his computer model capable of calculating the effect of the recent Tax Proposal on various income groups, provided essential information toward reform less skewed toward the rich.

May 20, 2001 - The Accelerated School founded in 1994 in South Central Los Angeles by Kevin Sved and Jonathan Williams, with high student expectations, challenging innovations and parental commitment, has dramatically improved student achievement and has become a model to be emulated elsewhere.

May 6, 2001 - Three years ago, a trek through the Himalayas changed the life of John Wood, motivating him to leave a successful corporate life to start Books for Nepal, an effort to provide books and then to build schools to overcome the cycle of illiteracy and poverty in Nepal.

April 9, 2001 - Tian Guirong, showing the environmental concern that has taken a distant second place to economic transformation in rural China, has purchased forty tons of spent toxic mercury-based batteries and until an environmentally safe burial site can be found has stored them wherever she can so that they do not pollute the water and land of her community.

April 9, 2001 - When Jenifer Estess, an active thirty-five year old was diagnosed with incurable A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig's disease), she refused to accept the inevitability of death. With her sisters, she formed Project A.L.S. which in less than four years has raised over $7,000,000 and recruited an all-star team of researchers working toward treatment and cure.

March 24, 2001 - More than two decades ago, Lois Gibbs focussed world attention on the tragic health consequences to homes and schools resulting from the toxic contamination of Love Canal. Today, still with no federal guidelines on where to build new schools, she alerts us to new schools being built on abandoned dump sites.

February 12, 2001 - Lilieth El, a teacher at an under-performing elementary school in the inner-city, began to teach chess to her fourth grade students who had never seen a chess set. By teaching them to learn, reason and strategize, they won a recent tournament, thereby discovering for the first time that when they work and persist, they can succeed.

January 10, 2001 - Martin Dent had the vision and persistence to organize the world effort known as Jubilee 2000 in which the world's richest countries forgave many billions of dollars of debt owed by the world's poorest countries on the condition that the savings be realized only if economic and other reforms be instituted to fight poverty.

December 29, 2000 - Peter Hayes has pioneered the use of windmills and wind turbines in North Korea, which not only demonstrate the viability of alternative energy sources, but also, hopefully, help to reduce the distrust between peoples and countries.

December 29, 2000 - Janette Fennell, after she and her husband were locked in the trunk of their car by gunmen more than five years ago, formed the Trunk Release Urgently Needed Coalition and has convinced the US Department of Transportation to require auto-makers to install a release or automatic system in trunks to allow children or adults to escape.

December 10, 2000 - Mark Blum, unable to continue to work due to multiple sclerosis, formed Mission With Bikes to fix old bikes and donate them to needy children. Spending about $40,000 a year of his own money, he has rehabilitated and donated over 800 bikes to children throughout the US and Russia, Bulgaria and Mexico.

December 10, 2000 - Kortney Tatum and Tiffany Blum, aware that their high school was not providing the teachers, classes, textbooks and facilities necessary for success in today's competitive environment, they surveyed students, spoke to teachers and administrators and wrote to the US Department of Education questioning whether the school's poor record violated their civil rights.

November 9, 2000 - Maria Escalante Mendoza, dismayed that the one hundred and forty thousand Spanish speaking students in Arizona were not learning English in bi-lingual programs, led the campaign for Proposition 203 mandating English immersion programs. Against the opposition of every major newspaper and the top elected officials, 63% of the voters have endorsed the measure.

October 23, 2000 - Howard Zibel, the clerk of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, after becoming aware of three instances in which he believed a Justice of the Court was guilty of ethical misconduct, risked the alienation of his co-workers by releasing the information, thereby allowing justice to prevail.

October 2, 2000 - Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, discovering that policy-making in California has shifted to the initiative process, conceptualized, organized and invested his own time and money in a successful measure to dismantle bi-lingual education and another, so far unsuccessful, to bring sweeping campaign finance reform to California.

July 22, 2000 - Yair Melchior, a seventeen-year old Orthodox Jew, soon to be drafted into the Israeli army, is one of the founders of Awakening, opposing military exemptions for religious men...while his father, an Orthodox Rabbi and Cabinet Minister in the government, has spoken for the opposing view in the Knesset.

July 12, 2000 - Zensaku Sakurai, working from the kitchen of his suburban home, started Rakusen Undo, the most successful grass-roots movement in Japan...exposing the arrogance and corruption of leaders and encouraging citizens to force politicians to be more responsive to the needs of the people.

July 8, 2000 - Hans Bethe, the head of the group that designed the world's first nuclear bombs and a scientific advisor to many American Presidents, at the age of ninety-four has led fifty American Nobel Laureates in cautioning of the dangers inherent in the deployment of the proposed nuclear missile defense system.

April 28, 2000 - Donna Dees-Thomases, while watching television coverage of yet another shooting of small children, conceived of the Million Mom March that will be the largest demonstration for gun control in American history, bringing tens of thousands of mothers who will march on Washington this Mother's Day.

April 27, 2000 - Dr. Bill Schwartz, founded Samaritan House, utilizing retired medical professionals to provide complete medical care, legal services, education programs, free clothing, holiday assistance and an emergency homeless shelter to poor immigrants in northern California.

March 10, 2000 - Rachel Ben-Dor founded Four Mothers in 1997 in an effort to mobilize public opinion to force the return of Israeli soldiers from Lebanon. Through organized protests, morning vigils and meetings with opposing groups and high-level Israeli officials, her efforts are nearing fruition as Israel prepares to withdraw its forces in July.

February 26, 2000 - Tom Mauser responded to the murder of his son Daniel at Columbine High School by becoming a vocal advocate of gun control. He has assumed a leadership role in the effort to alter both the climate and the laws that allow the purchase of weapons of destruction whose sole purpose is to indiscriminately take human life.

January 16, 2000 - Chaim Goldberg and Dovid Cohen devoting part of six days each week to a two man war on poverty, have helped thousands in Jerusalem afflicted by an unexpected misfortune or a major change in the welfare of their family.

November 6, 1999 - Luis Lainer and Stan Levy, following the biblical injunction, "Justice, justice you shall pursue", founded Bet Tzedek twenty-five years ago to help the poor in the mostly Jewish Fairfax district. Although the origins were Jewish, now many of the lawyers, staff and clients are not, and Bet Tzedek continues to save the lives and dreams of many.

October 3, 1999 - Bob Scheer, in his writing for The Los Angeles Times, prompted many community activists and governmental officials to cause the telephone company to overturn their overlay in the 310 area code that required everyone to dial eleven digits even when calling someone across the street...not an earthshaking problem, but a recurring annoyance to many and an excellent example of effective community activism.

August 14, 1999 - Xie Wanjun, a student leader at Tiananmen in 1989 and subsequently one of the founders of the outlawed Chinese Democracy Party, was forced to leave his country and his young wife and daughter. Determined to unite the various overseas democracy advocates he has been granted refugee status in the US.

August 14, 1999 - Juliana Dogbadzi, in compliance with the cultural practice of Trokasi, was abandoned at the age of seven by her family and forced to serve as a slave to shrine priests in reparation for the acts of her family. After fourteen years of abuse, she now fights to end this barbaric custom in Ghana and one thousand women have now been freed.

August 1, 1999 - Priscilla Blum and Jay Weinberg created the Corporate Angel Network which has now flown corporate jets over eleven thousand flights bringing cancer patients throughout the country, without charge, to receive the specialized care necessary for their treatment.

May 30, 1999 - Dame Cicely Saunders has devoted her life to enable the terminally ill to die with dignity. Opening her first hospice more than forty years ago, she continues to teach, inspire and conduct research, struggling to control the labyrinth of pain and to spread the hospice movement worldwide.

May 29, 1999 - Sister Maria Luz Hernandez arrived at the San Miguel Church in Watts a decade ago to find the neighborhood infested with drug dealers and worse. Called "a force of nature disguised as an Augustinian missionary", she single-handedly changed the neighborhood...and now, at seventy-five, is moving back to Kansas to tend to the needs of the elderly!

April 30, 1999 - Doris Haddock, an eighty-nine year old great grandmother, is in the midst of a one year walk across the United States in an effort to protest against the cancer of campaign contributions on the political system...and to motivate people to demand real campaign finance reform.

January 19, 1999 - Tuck Donnelly established Northwest Food Strategies, linking fifty-five independent fishing vessels, thirty seafood processors and every major shipping company in an effort to salvage fish previously discarded by fisheries in the Northwest...resulting in more than twelve million nutritious meals for the hungry.

January 19, 1999 - Blane and Mark Beckwith, despite being extremely handicapped by degenerative muscular dystrophy, have become effective political activists, lobbying for new legislation and joining Agenda '98, Jerry's Orphans and ADAPT, fighting for the rights of the disabled to live on their own.

January 9, 1999 - Priscilla Read Chenoweth, back in 1991, read that an eighteen year old boy had been wrongly convicted of murder. Enlisting the help of family members, retired detectives and others, she invested $50,000 of her "old age" money and years of her time in having the first conviction overturned and securing an "innocent" decision when he was retried.

December 4, 1998 - Rob Reiner conceived and ran the campaign on behalf of Proposition 10, to increase the cost of cigarettes and thereby decrease the number sold to young people. Committing his time as well as his money and celebrity, he led the successful campaign that is forecast to result in 75,000 fewer adolescents smoking and preventing 24,000 premature deaths among young people in Los Angeles County alone.

December 4, 1998 - Jenny Campo, although only thirteen years old, heads the Children's Movement for Peace in Columbia...an organization of millions of young people demanding an end to the long conflict in her country and encouraging the concept of citizen involvement throughout the country.

December 2, 1998 - Northwestern University Professor of Law Lawrence Marshall organized the recent conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty, bringing together twenty-eight people that had been sentenced to death and released when their innocence was proved. By showing that our legal system discriminates against minorities, the poor and others without adequate legal representation, he hopes to encourage a reanalysis of this barbaric practice.

August 4, 1998 - Edauco Pulido, convinced he had been overcharged on his water bill, went to the water company offices and was met with indifference and insults of his Spanish accent. He organized his neighbors and after meeting weekly for three years in his tiny garage, their efforts resulted in not only the change of water company policy but the election of two of their members to the company Board of Directors.

May 21, 1998 - Elizabeth Mullen, a breast cancer survivor, and Dr. Ernie Bodai, a breast cancer surgeon, conceptualized and secured acceptance of the innovative idea of a forty cent postage stamp that would include eight cents from each stamp to be turned over to breast cancer research programs...perhaps bringing us many million dollars closer to a cure.

May 21, 1998 - Leslie Nuchow, a gifted but struggling singer appealing to young people, was offered a lucrative recording contract by a Philip Morris-owned record company...the catch being that the only way to obtain the CD would be to purchase two packs of Virginia Slims. Leslie said "no thanks" and created Virginia SLAM!, a series of alternative concerts.

May 4, 1998 - For 53 years, the 316 survivors of the sinking of the cruiser Indianapolis have tried to exonerate the Navy Captain considered a scapegoat for the worst sea disaster in American naval history. Now, Hunter Scott, a twelve-year old schoolboy, has spearheaded a renewed effort that reversed the court-martial conviction of Charles Butler McVay, 3rd.

April 18, 1998 - Kamala Ghosh, the principal of the Ram Krishna Vivekanand School is one of the very few fighting for the 33,000,000 Hindu widows in India doomed to "social death" for no other reason other than that their husbands have died. Struggling not only against the ancient Hindu caste hierarchy, she must also confront the ancient scriptures which advise that widows are to be ostracized.

March 22, 1998 - James Thomas succumbed to the pressure of his fellow jurors and voted to convict Wayne Cservak, despite severe doubts about the evidence. When he learned that Cservak was entitled to an appeal, but couldn't afford an attorney, he hired the best in town, and a new trial resulted in the conviction being overturned and freedom for an innocent man.

February 14, 1998 - Yuichi Goto, working out of his small bakery in Tokyo, was incensed upon learning the many ways that Japan's bureaucrats were wasting taxpayer money. His single-handed legal action and public disclosure has resulted in the return of approximately $8,000,000 in misspent funds to public coffers.

December 29, 1997 - Nancy Lubin, seeking to honor her great-grandfather, she used her $5,000 inheritance from him to establish Dress for Success, to provide business clothes for low income women trying to find a job. Now, she has taken a leave of absence from law school and added her own life savings...helping to enable more than five hundred women to secure employment to support themselves and their families.

December 17, 1997 - Frederick A. Fay, despite severe physical disability that confines him to his bed, on his back, has learned to operate several computers (with the screen face-down over his head and mirrors enabling him to see his keyboard) so that he can continue his activist efforts including organizing voter registration drives for disabled citizens and working as a lobbyist for the Americans with Disabilities Act.

December 16, 1997 - Ina Rae Brown, using her social security check to purchase food and following her tasty Louisiana style recipes, for the last seven years has been feeding hundreds of poor and homeless people every Saturday afternoon at a street corner in Long Beach.

December 14, 1997 - Dick Falkenbury and Grant Cogswell, a part-time poet and a cab driver, with no money, scorned by the political establishment and ignored by the press, mobilized the people of Seattle to vote for a billion dollar mass transit monorail system.

December 14, 1997 - Reverend Wiley Drake continues to provide shelter on church property for scores of homeless people and to distribute about thirty thousand pounds of food a month to those that are hungry, despite legal action by city officials interpreting city ordinances to prohibit his compassionate efforts.

September 30, 1997 - Christophe Meili, came across Holocaust related documents being shredded in the cellar of the Union Bank of Switzerland and turned them over to a Jewish organization. Despite the fact that according to Swiss law such documents were to be preserved, his actions resulted in his being fired and vilified, causing him to seek refuge in the United States.

September 29, 1997 - Upon discovering that the remains of a Sioux Indian Chief, who died while touring with Bill Cody's Wild West Show in Victorian England one hundred years ago, were in a neglected grave in West London, Elizabeth Knight waged a successful one-woman campaign that enabled the transfer to his ancestral burial grounds near the Black Hills of South Dakota.

September 13, 1997 - Emily Lau, after the reversion of Hong Kong to China, has become one of the clearest voices fighting for the rights of the people against the Chinese autocracy. Always honest, often brutally frank, constantly unafraid, she has become an incorruptible symbol of the struggle for democracy and justice for the people of Hong Kong.

September 12, 1997 - In 1981, shortly after the establishment of Shalom Achshav in Israel, Mark Rosenblum founded Americans for Peace Now, which has become the leading US advocate for peace in the Middle East. For sixteen long years his personal dedication, knowledge and persistence have inspired many thousands of others to recognize that "Real security can be achieved only when we achieve peace."

July 23, 1997 - For more than three decades, Marshall Ganz has fought against injustices he perceived in our society. Beginning in 1964, when he dropped out of Harvard to work full-time for civil rights in the South, then later for many years with the United Farm Workers movement and other grass-roots political organizing in California...and now by motivating the next generation of activist leaders in his classes at Harvard.

June 19, 1997 - Han Dong-Fang, by founding the Beijing Autonomous Workers Federation, became a threat to China's autocracy and was inhumanely treated during two years detention without charges or trial. Unable to break his spirit or force contrition, he was released and immediately resumed his protests. Sent overseas for medical treatment, he has been refused re-entry to China and now, without fear, awaits China coming to him in Hong Kong.

June 1, 1997 - Martin Lee, by virtue of his leadership flowing from the Democratic Party's mandate in free elections and his eloquent vigilance in alerting the world to violations of the letter and the spirit of the Basic Law, has become the conscience of democracy in Hong Kong. He is providing the moral leadership in the effort to not allow the rule of law to be compromised by the rule of men when Hong Kong reverts to China later this month.

May 16, 1997 - Philip Berrigan, former priest and longtime anti-war crusader, is awaiting sentence for his conviction of conspiracy and damaging government property in an anti-war demonstration. Convinced that "God's law says thou shall not kill", his repeated efforts in the last 36 years have resulted in more than 7 of his 73 years being spent in prison.

April 5, 1997 - Jody Williams, recognizing that old landmines, long after wars have ended, continue to kill over 26,000 civilians yearly, has worked relentlessly as the Coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines to create a coalition that now seems poised to finally outlaw this cruel and senseless weapon.

March 20, 1997 - Dr. David Kessler, former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has made the public aware of the deleterious effect of tobacco in our society, and the efforts of tobacco companies to entice young smokers (currently 3,000 daily begin to smoke). He led the effort to regulate tobacco advertising and sales and, knowing that nicotine is an addictive drug, has advocated that it should be regulated as such.

February 26, 1997 - Zar Ni, a University of Wisconsin graduate student, organized The Free Burma Coalition to pressure the Burmese military government to cease its repressive tactics against Aung San Suu Kyi and her political party that won 82% of the legislative seats in a free election. Succumbing to the Coalition boycott on over 100 campuses, Pepsi Cola has ceased to do business in Burma.

January 19, 1997 - Lee Cheuk Yan of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and also head of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China. He has been instrumental in mobilizing one million people on the streets of Hong Kong in memory of those that fought and died in Tiananmen Square...an activity that he vows to continue, through civil disobedience if necessary, after the takeover by China on July 1st.

December 27, 1996 - Nick Monreal, Jr. recognized in 1981 that the many forms of educational reform were ineffective if the children from economically disadvantaged household did not have the most basic school supplies. He founded Teach The Children Network, whose 173 branches in 37 states have now provided more than a half million children with the tools to advance their education.

November 19, 1996 - Reverend Ralph Mero co-founded "Compassion in Dying" in the belief that each of us should be allowed to determine how we live and when we die. Largely due to his efforts, the Supreme Court will decide in 1997 whether each state may decriminalize hastened death for terminally ill competent adults.

October 4, 1996 - Charles Juntikka is convinced that political contributions have corrupted the political process. Using his own savings, he has initiated a campaign to put a referendum on the New York ballot that would limit contributions to $100 and require all candidates accepting public financing to debate their opponents.

August 20, 1996 - Outraged that multi-national corporations have prospered while paying starvation wages of $12.00 per week to third-world garment workers, Charles Kernaghan, through his tiny National Labor Committee, has focused the media spotlight on the moral issues involved, in an effort to cause workers to be treated with dignity and compassion.

July 5, 1996 - Anita Roddick is the rare businesswoman who combines social activism and business acumen. While building the Body Shop into a business empire in forty-five countries, Roddick and her employees have embraced and nurtured numerous social causes throughout the world.

May 22, 1996 - Ginetta Sagan has devoted her entire adult lifetime to fighting for causes in which she believes. For the last three decades she has, at times alone, at times at the forefront of Amnesty International, courageously struggled to liberate political prisoners throughout the world.

May 13, 1996 - Paul Taylor, dismayed by the political process that limited a candidate's ability to make his views known to his ability to purchase expensive television time, quit his job to work full-time in an attempt to convince all of the television networks to offer free time to the major political candidates.

May 6, 1996 - Craig Kielburger, a twelve year old Canadian, created Free The Children in an effort to focus attention on the more than two hundred million children worldwide that are trapped in slave labor. He was so moved by the murder of a boy his own age in Pakistan that he embarked on a seven week trip throughout Asia to work with child rights' activists in this campaign against child servitude.

April 17, 1996 - Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff visualized and created PEACEJAM, linking eight Nobel Peace Prize Laureates with teenagers in an innovative youth-oriented program focusing on world peace. Recognizing that today's teenagers are a valuable resource as agents of change in a violent world, PEACEJAM aspires to transform today's apathy into tomorrow's hope.

March 10, 1996 - For thirteen years, Patty Young, a Dallas flight attendant, has been fighting a one-woman crusade against tobacco. It was due in large part to her testimony that, in 1990, Congress banned smoking on all domestic airlines. Now, with another flight attendant she is one of the plaintiffs in the largest lawsuit ever to attempt to hold cigarette makers responsible for illnesses suffered by people who don't smoke.

February 19, 1996 - Retiring in Nevada, after working in California, Bill Hoffman was incensed to discover that California had the right to tax his retirement income, even though he no longer lived there. Fifteen other states had the same law, but through the determined efforts of Hoffman and hundreds that joined with him over a nine year period he was able to lead a campaign in Congress to override those laws.

January 18, 1996 - In the sixties, Bob Moses' charismatic leadership inspired hundreds of young Americans to fight for the civil rights of southern blacks in Freedom Summer of 1964. In the nineties, he has directed his talents toward the establishment and growth of the Algebra Project, a math-science program for inner-city and minority middle-school children.

December 17, 1995 - When her son was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1990, Myrtle Faye Rumph put aside thoughts of vengeance and with determination to honor his memory, created the Al Wooten, Jr. Heritage Center. Today, dozens of young children benefit from the tutoring and educational center that she has created and nurtured.

November 1, 1995 - Despite, or perhaps because of, nineteen years imprisonment in Chinese labor camps, Harry Wu has repeatedly returned to China to document the abuses and investigate reports of the sale of human organs from executed prisoners. He has nearly single-handedly made prison labor a human rights issue in China's relationship with the United States and the World Bank.

October 25, 1995 - Determined to fight against the increasing number of shootings in New York City, in December of 1993, Fernando Mateo created the Goods for Guns Foundation, designed to trade a $100 merchandise certificate for every gun turned in. Since that time, thousands of guns that might have been used in violent crimes are now off the streets, and there is increased public awareness of the necessity to return the streets to law-abiding people.

September 30, 1995 - With relations between blacks and Jews at an all-time low, Cookie Lommel formed Operation Unity to address the problem by sending a group of ten black and Latino teenagers from Los Angeles to a kibbutz in Israel in the summer of 1994. While teaching the teens the importance of understanding and racial harmony, the program has also given the teens the tools for personal growth and self-confidence.

August 24, 1995 - Recognizing that people with disabilities can have hope in their lives by developing computer skills, Bruce McMahon and Yvette Marrin established the National Cristina Foundation in 1984...and have enabled thousands of the most vulnerable members of society to lead independent and productive lives.

July 30, 1995 - Awakened to the problem by her own son's illness, Susan Dempsay founded, and later became Executive Director of Step Up On Second to aid adults struggling for independence and dignity as they combat serious but treatable forms of mental illness. Initially a daytime socialization center as an alternative to traditional hospitalization, Step Up now also provides single-unit housing for some of those it aids.

June 9, 1995 - June 4, 1989, Chinese tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds in their effort to disburse the Chinese students demonstrating for democratic reform. Among those killed was the seventeen year old, only son of Professor Deng Zelin. Since then, almost alone, she has struggled to secure information regarding those that perished so that these brave young victims will not have died "an anonymous death in unknown circumstances".

May 19, 1995 - A dozen years ago, seeking to encourage and motivate people to "stick their neck out" to work for the common good, Ann Medlock created the Giraffe Project. Since then, she and her husband, John Graham, have worked tirelessly, following their dream, and have recognized hundreds and motivated thousands who have discovered that ordinary people can truly accomplish extraordinary things.

April 9, 1995 - As a newly-divorced young mother with a small daughter, Susan Spier was thrown into a legal system that often seemed unable or uninterested in helping to collect child-support payments from fathers well-able to pay. In 1982 she founded Single Parents United 'N' Kids, which has fought the system enabling many single parent families to become self-sufficient.

March 11, 1995 - When her company retired her in 1970, Maggie Kuhn began a quarter century of social activism, bringing people of all ages together against the war in Vietnam and the threat of nuclear war. The Gray Panthers that she founded and inspired became a world-wide organization in the forefront in the struggle for social justice.

February 10, 1995 - With women victims of domestic violence facing the choice between continued brutality and a legal system that not only does not understand, but is often ill-equipped to provided justice, Abby J. Liebman founded the California Women's Law Center in 1990 to fight for much needed reform on a wide range of women's issues.

January 16, 1995 - While the majority of his classmates at Harvard, where in 1985 he simultaneously earned a law degree and a masters in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government, are earning big salaries from prestigious law firms, Bryan Stevenson has devoted his life to helping poor blacks who have received death sentences, often due to faulty legal representation or an anti-black legal system.

December 26, 1994 - A battered wife, Floretta Sears Thomas raised four children on her own, fought for civil rights for all and established WALLS, "Women Allied Liaisons Leaders of Strength" to honor the unsung heroes in her community that were struggling to correct social problems.

November 24, 1994 - Based on the principle of "animating idle pennies", Theodore Faro Gross founded "Common Cents". With the help of over one thousand volunteers, they have provided $400,000 to more than forty agencies serving poor and homeless people in New York City.

October 1, 1994 - Realizing the tremendous problems caused by high drop-out rates in the schools in the inner-city of Los Angeles, Fred Williams started Common Ground. After achieving a success rate of 90%, the program has now been expanded to provide real alternatives and job training to young people who would soon be involved in criminal gang activity.

August 23, 1994 - Three years ago, Tim Fazio, then a high school student, conceived of the idea that on one day everyone in the country would take the time to do something positive in their community. Since then, having inspired other young people to join the cause and major corporations to aid in the financing, he has taken time off from college to work full-time toward the fulfillment of his dream, on October 15th, 1994.

August 7, 1994 - In the summer of 1964, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney disappeared soon after being released by the police in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was only when the FBI convinced a local Klansman, Delmar Dennis, to aid in the investigation, were the three young civil rights workers found beneath an earthen dam and the White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan of Mississippi destroyed.

July 2, 1994 - Recognizing that people would like to help the hungry and many organizations were equipped to be of help if only they had the funds, Linda Hamilton devised bar-coded cards that enabled people to make donations at supermarket check-out counters. Since 1986, $4,250,000 has been raised for food programs worldwide by the cards now available in twelve hundred stores in five states.

June 7, 1994 - Over three decades, Joan Baez has given tirelessly of her time and talent in assisting causes in which she believes throughout the world. Although most identified as one of the earliest protesters to the Vietnam War, those efforts still continue today as evidenced by her latest trips to aid those suffering in Bosnia.

May 6, 1994 - Since founding Alternative Living for the Aging in 1978, Janet L. Witkin has worked to create housing opportunities for low-income older people. The concept of "independence through interdependence", the free roommate matching program and the cooperative living residences have helped many seniors in Los Angeles and have become models for other cities.

April 8, 1994 - In 1966, recognizing that education was the path out of the Harlem ghetto, Ned O'Gorman founded the Children's Storefront as a preschool for neighborhood children. Now, the only tuition-free elementary school in Harlem, it has an enrollment of 130 and has graduated almost one thousand young people who have a chance to become productive members of society.

March 20, 1994 - Recognizing that the cold was one of the chief enemies of the homeless living on the street in mid-winter, Elizabeth Yanish organized drives in Denver and New York City that persuaded tens of thousands to donate warm winter coats that had been hanging unused in their closets.

February 10, 1994 - Realizing that many health professionals had retired to a community in close proximity to one in which many were too poor to afford health care, despite numerous obstacles, Dr. Jack McConnell founded the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic. Now 160 doctors, nurses, etc. are donating their services free of charge to provide free medical care to the medically under-served.

January 20, 1994 - After years of efforts to counter tobacco advertising in the United States, Andrew Tobias created and financed a series of anti-smoking spots on Russian television advising of smoking-related health hazards. Most recently, he visualized and is leading a campaign in California to pay for automobile insurance at the pump, thereby remedying many of the problems caused by uninsured motorists.

December 1, 1993 - Dr. Jack Kevorkian (encouragement for his activism but not an Award of Achievement), feeling that the existing Michigan law prohibiting doctors from assisting terminally ill or suffering patients that seek to take their own life is "an immoral law, comparable to those the Nazis enacted against the Jews", has been present at twenty deaths since June of 1990. For this he has been harassed and jailed, but he continues to fight for a cause that he believes to be just.

November 8, 1993 - Andy Raubeson formed Single Room Occupancy Housing in 1984 to address the problems of the homeless and other at-risk groups in the inner-cities. SRO now provides housing and a degree of dignity to more than five hundred people living in units they have rehabilitated in fifteen hotels in Los Angeles, as well as assistance to others seeking to provide similar services elsewhere.

October 14, 1993 - Reverend Lucius Walker, Jr., surviving an attack by contra terrorists on a civilian passenger ferry on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast in 1988, founded Pastors for Peace to bring aid to civilians in the area. A dozen caravans have brought farm, medical and school supplies to grass-roots development projects in Latin America to enable people to rebuild their own lives.

September 14, 1993 - Envisioning a way to feed millions of hungry people by utilizing the tremendous waste in the food industry, John Van Hengle created the world's first food bank in 1967. Continuing to work to feed the needy, he has since created Second Harvest and consulted worldwide to help others to utilize the food bank principle, so that today, as a result of his efforts, millions of people throughout the world are no longer hungry.

August 28, 1993 - After graduating Stanford with honors in 1989, Amy Biehl pursued her passion as a Fulbright scholar by working toward voter education and equality of women in South Africa. On August 25th, 1993, just two days before she was to return home for graduate studies, she was killed by militant members of the Pan African Congress simply because she was white.

July 10, 1993 - When her elderly parents were denied health insurance coverage that they had been paying for, Marian Miller was infuriated and sued, receiving a $250,000 settlement. By that time her mother had died and her father had been forced to go on welfare since his meager savings were exhausted, but Miller recognized the pattern whereby the giant insurance companies abused the system and founded Victims of Insurance Company Errors (VOICE) to help others secure benefits due them.

June 21, 1993 - In the late 1960's, Father Daniel Berrigan, passionately feeling that the Vietnam War was wrong, led numerous demonstrations against the war and was willing to go to jail in protest. Twenty-five years later, Berrigan, now seventy-one, continues to act in support of his beliefs, and regularly demonstrates against the dangers of the nuclear bomb.

May 7, 1993 - For her efforts as a founder of "Women For Peace", other actions toward universal disarmament and as a founder of Neue Forum, which played a leading role in organizing the mass protest rallies that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the East German Government, Baerbel Bohley has been called the "Mother of the Revolution" that changed her country.

April 26, 1993 - Thirty-two years ago, concerned about the poor self-image and the high drop-out rate of Puerto Rican students in New York City, Dr. Antonia Pantoja established Aspira...which has inspired tens of thousands of young people to greater accomplishments than they would have otherwise achieved.

March 7, 1993 - Glen and Mildred Leet, in an effort to alleviate poverty, initiated Trickle Up, Inc. in 1979, helping the poorest of the poor start or expand 28,646 businesses in 98 countries worldwide. Their program, with a grant of two installments of only $50, has created jobs for many thousands of people throughout the world.

February 4, 1993 - Dorothy Stoneman founded of a unique national program called YouthBuild U.S.A. designed to give disadvantaged, undereducated young people from seventeen to twenty-five a second chance in life. Students attend academic classes for half the time and utilize the balance of the time to help to rebuild their communities. YouthBuild activities are now in 44 states, with 200 more communities ready to launch the program.

December 11, 1992 - Responding to the wave of ethnic hatred and violence that has swept Germany, four young Germans, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Gil Bachrach, Christoph Fisser & Christ Haberlein organized a grass-roots non-violent demonstration of citizens that brought well over 300,000 people to the streets of Munich. Rejecting the backing of political parties, trade unions and those with links to the political left, they showed in the once "capital of the Nazi movement", that many Germans felt that it was high time that a sign of human decency be shown in the country.

December 3, 1992 - As Chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and chief spokesman for the country's 40,000 Jews, Ignatz Bubis has led the outcry against the xenophobic violence and has become a voice of the German national conscience. As the attacks on foreigners mirror the rise of Nazism in the Germany of the thirties, his voice has rallied others to the importance of taking a stand now to insure that hatred does not once again prevail.

November 19, 1992 - Ted Forstmann, a conservative businessman, was shocked by the news reports regarding the suffering in Bosnia-Herzegovina and determined to do something about it. He has raised large amounts of food, clothes and equipment and has twice personally delivered supplies to the refugees from the conflict.

October 28, 1992 - Twelve years ago, when one of her children was suffering from rare disease and in need of an "orphan drug" that she could not get, Abbey Meyers and others started the National Organization of Rare Disorders to fight for the prevention, control and cure of rare "orphan diseases" and the welfare of people afflicted by these devastating illnesses. Since then they have helped to pass supportive legislation, promoted scientific research, educated the public and the medical profession and acted as a clearinghouse for information about rare disorders.

September 15, 1992 - In 1979 when a series of rainstorms led the Stringfellow Acid Pits to overflow into the backyards and school playgrounds of a Riverside County community, Penny Newman, until then a soft-spoken special education teacher and mother of two, became a full-time environmental activist. Her infectious energy and media savvy proved instrumental in bringing the issue to the public consciousness and recently resulted in a $150,000,000 legal agreement to pay for the cleanup.

August 8, 1992 - Rob Nelson and Jon Cowan, feeling that their generation (they are 29 and 27) would be faced with a legacy of debt caused by the ever increasing federal deficits, formed "Lead or Leave" to attempt to cure the problem. The organization hopes to attract student activists around the country and galvanize young voters to demand that candidates pledge to leave office if the federal deficit is not cut in half within four years.

July 24, 1992 - For five decades, without anything resembling personal physical comforts, Charlotte Sinovoi has devoted her boundless energy to improve the lot of others. Beginning with all facets of the progressive movement through recent efforts on behalf of senior citizens and other causes, most often without any personal recognition, Sinovoi has tirelessly given of herself in her effort to empower others.

June 5, 1992 - Stirred by the Rodney King verdicts and the ensuing Los Angeles riots, James A. White knew it was time to act. He called everyone that he knew in his Riverside community and within 24 hours an alliance of 250 elected and city officials and religious and community leaders emerged and began discussions of the ways to improve conditions to ensure that the same thing did not happen again.

May 18, 1992 - Dismayed by the Federal cutbacks in aid to the cities, despite the myriad and massive problems confronting all urban areas, Osborn Elliott visualized, and personally organized, the Save Our Cities March on May 16th to demand Federal attention.

April 21, 1992 - In the early sixties, Ruth Johnson Colvin, active in promoting literacy work overseas through her church, was surprised to discover the number of functionally illiterate adults living in her own city of Syracuse, New York. Through diligence and determination, she created a national volunteer adult literacy organization with over 440 local programs across the United States. Her selfless commitment throughout the past thirty years has empowered nearly a quarter of a million functionally illiterate adults and teens to take control of their own lives through new literacy skills.

March 23, 1992 - In 1990, at the age of thirty, Joe Cherner left a high paying job as a bond trader (Kidder Peabody & Co.'s Man of the Year in 1987), to devote himself to educating children about cigarette advertising and the dangers of smoking. Since then he has worked full time, and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money, and founded Smokefree Educational Services, Inc...visiting schools in New York to lead discussions with students about cigarette advertising and the health consequences of smoking.

February 9, 1992 - For thirty years Tony Schwartz has used his considerable talents as a creator of effective advertising to help many organizations fighting to create a tobacco-free society. Working alone and without pay, he has designed campaigns that have enabled many organizations to effectively counter the large sums expended by tobacco companies, and to help to reduce the pervasiveness of tobacco in our society.

January 10, 1992 - From a modest beginning in 1968, Peggy Charen with two neighbors, founded and built Action for Children's Television into the leading crusader for better television for children. A tireless conscience of children's television, a constant thorn in the side of the networks and a battler against commercialization of shows for young viewers, Charen and ACT were largely responsible for the passage of the 1990 Children's Television Act.

November 27, 1991 - In 1985, Ellen Malcolm founded Emily's List (an acronym for Early Money Is Like Yeast) to help to elect pro-abortion rights, pro ERA, women Democrats to high office. Now with 3000 members and a staff of seven, combining financial clout with sophisticated candidate recruitment, they have emerged as a political force. They have helped to elect two governors, Ann Richards of Texas and Barbara Roberts of Oregon; Barbara Mikulski to become the first woman Democrat to be elected to the Senate in her own right; and numerous women to Congress.

October 29, 1991 - For four decades, Florence Rice has been virtually a one woman consumer movement known as the Harlem Consumer Education Council. She has dedicated herself to helping the poor and elderly survive in a hostile urban setting by teaching them about credit, insurance and financial services, how to use their resources wisely, and by forcing large corporations such as Consolidated Edison and the New York Telephone Company to cease discriminatory policies against the poor.

September 13, 1991 - George T. Lundberg, taking initiative far beyond the scope of his duties as editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, has caused the AMA to spearhead efforts to prod President Bush and Congress to enact sweeping health care reforms. Prior stands taken by Lundberg have led to the AMA taking new positions on other issues, including smoking and boxing.

June 26, 1991 - Feeling the education system in the United States must be improved, in her senior year at Princeton, Wendy Kopp developed the idea of Teach for America, a radical attempt to woo promising graduates of the nations top colleges into teaching. In 1990-91, one year after graduating, she raised $2,000,000 and this visionary program placed 495 new teachers in schools throughout the country.

May 24, 1991 - For twenty-five years Abe Nathan has been flying throughout the Middle East, arranging well-publicized meetings with Israel's many Arab enemies, in an attempt to create pressure toward the peace process. In an effort to cause the revision of the Israeli law making it illegal to meet with members of the PLO he has publicly met with Arafat and served four months in prison as a consequence. Currently, although 64 years old, and in frail health, he is 26 days into an "indefinite fast" in an attempt to jar the government to open talks with the enemy.

May 1, 1991 - Ethel Leavitt, Grace Quinn and Ziva Naumann at a time when many their age have ceased to make active contributions to society, these women (80, 75 and 60 years old) operate a low-cost family law center for the working and welfare poor (who are ineligible for government law programs and with no other place to go to secure legal assistance). Levitt, Quinn and Naumann talk to at least 300 people a day, take on some 100 new cases a month and bring about 20 to court on one scheduled day each month.

April 24, 1991 - Allan Affeldt worked to lessen world tensions through the establishment of International Peace Walks, Inc. Dedicated to creative and peaceful resolution of international conflicts, IPW initially focused on the long standing antagonism between the United States and the Soviet Union, and created a community of citizens from the two countries to capture the imagination of a skeptical public. Recently IPW has initiated an effort to improve the relations between the United States and two long standing adversaries...Cuba and Vietnam.

March 20, 1991 - Philip Sokolof conducted a remarkable single-handed crusade to improve the diet and protect the health of Americans. Beginning in 1984 when he founded the National Heart Savers Association, he sponsored free cholesterol testing and conducted massive mail and advertising campaigns that induced food companies (including Nabisco, McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's) to utilize healthy vegetable oils in their food products.

February 15, 1991 - Mauricia Miranda headed a neighborhood group (United Neighbors of Temple-Beaudry) in a successful fight to secure affordable housing in the Central City West project in Los Angeles.

February 15, 1991 - Brad Krevor organized, and is the Executive Director of the Tobacco Divestment Project, a national initiative to promote a smoke-free society. TDP focuses on the proposition that we should not profit from tobacco addiction, and encourages organizations to not invest in the companies that produce tobacco products.