June 24, 2007

Jefferson Awards National Ceremony Report

San Rafael Activist Among National Award Winners

By: Shelah Moody, SF Chronicle Staff Writer

Heidi Kuhn of San Rafael, founder the nonprofit organization Roots of Peace, was one of five recipients of the prestigious Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award -- the National Jefferson Award for Public Service -- at a gala ceremony Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Kuhn, 49, received the Bay Area Jefferson Award for community service in 2006 for creating Roots of Peace, after the death of Princess Diana in 1997, in honor of Diana's crusade for land-mine removal. Through Roots of Peace, Kuhn is trying to rid the world of land mines and transform toxic minefields into farmland. Roots of Peace has de-mining and replanting projects in Angola, Cambodia, Croatia, Afghanistan and Iraq. "As one of the Jefferson Award recipients so eloquently stated, 'I am floating on high cotton,' " said Kuhn. "As I visited the hospitality suite at the Mayflower Hotel, I was able to meet several recipients of the Jefferson Award from all over the United States. It was at this moment that I felt truly humbled by the extraordinary work that all of the national awardees were truly accomplishing from their respective locations. There was much to be learned from this gathering of unsung heroes who are contributing the 'best' of what America has to offer." The event was hosted by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former lieutenant governor of Maryland and daughter of Robert Kennedy. The four other Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award recipients were chosen from 81 Jefferson Award winners from across the United
States.

They are:
-- Kathryn Martin of Evansville, Ind., who worked to establish C.J.'s Law, which requires weather radios in all new manufactured housing. In 2005, Martin's 2-year-old son, C.J., was killed during a tornado.

-- Stevie Moore of Memphis, Tenn., who founded the Stop the Killing campaign to organize marches and rallies after the fatal shooting of his 23-year-old son. 

-- Nancy Costello of Salinas, also affectionately known as the Saint of the Hungry in Monterey County, for her efforts picking up leftover food from grocery stores and delivering it to migrant farmworkers in the fields.
-- Andrea Blamble of Columbus, Ohio, a high school senior who was diagnosed with polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at age 13 and founded JACKS, Juvenile Arthritis Club for Kids.

The Jefferson Awards for Public Service were established through the American Institute for Public Service, which was founded by Onassis, Sen. Robert Taft and Sam Beard, the organization's current president, in 1972.