The American
Zach Bonner receiving the Presidential Call to Service Award from President George W Bush, 2006.
11yo Floridian Nominated for Robert Burns Award The Robert Burns Humanitarian Award, now in its ninth year, is presented annually to a group or individual who has enriched the lives of others or society as a whole, through personal self-sacrifice, selfless service or ‘hands on’ charitable work. This year’s nominees include an extraordinary young man, 11 year old Zachary Bonner from Florida, founder of the Little Red Wagon Foundation. Zach created his nonprofit organization to help kids in distressed situations when he was just six, and funds it by incredible long distance walks. Over a period, Zach walked from his home in Valrico, Tampa, Florida to Washington D.C., to raise funds for homeless and sick children. Whatever the weather he walks up to eleven or twelve miles each day. President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Call to Service Award in 2006. On Christmas Day 2009 he started an even more amazing Walk Across America, from Tampa to Los Angeles, 2225 miles. Check out http://littleredwagonfoundation.com to see how Zach is getting on, or follow him on Twitter.
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Left to right: Courtney Judd, Rayan Asfari, Dr Jane Goodall, Madison Price, Danniyal Lalani
Environmental Award for ACS student
A
merican Courtney Judd from Beaconsfield was one of four young students from ACS Hillingdon International School who attended a ceremony at the Zoological Society of London in December to receive awards in recognition of their school’s work to improve the environment for people and animals. The awards were given by Dr Jane Goodall, world famous primatologist and head of the Jane Goodall Institute. The Institute safeguards wild chimpanzees and their environment through conservation, research and educational activities such as its Roots & Shoots programme for young people which has groups in almost 100 countries. It continues Dr Goodall’s pioneering research into chimpanzee behavior, which transformed our understanding of the relationship between humans and animals. At the Awards ceremony Courtney, Rayan Asfari from St. John’s Wood, Madison Price from Farnham Royal and Danniyal Lalani from Northwood showcased the work they had done in school and gave a
presentation to the audience. They received an award in recognition of three separate projects the school completed as part of its Roots & Shoots work which together raised over £3,000 for the charity. Other projects undertaken by the school as part of its Roots & Shoots work included a charity walk, a ‘Go Green’ cake sale on St Patrick’s Day, and making donations of food and toiletries to homeless youth in their local community. Anne-Mari Pesonen, an English and Humanities teacher at ACS Hillingdon who attended the Awards with the four students said, “I am extremely proud of the dedication and enthusiasm of the students at ACS. They are compassionate and genuinely care about making a difference in our world. I am inspired every day by these global citizens and the way that they want to take initiative and do something that matters. It was such an honour to be recognised for the work we did as part of JGI’s Roots & Shoots and the students are thrilled to have received this accolade.”