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EarthWorks named Champion in Action in Massachusetts
Citizens Bank and NECN provide $25,000 grant, PR and volunteer supportBOSTON (July 16, 2007) - Citizens Bank of Massachusetts and NECN today named EarthWorks in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood as this quarter’s Champion in Action in Massachusetts under the category of environmental support. As part of the award, EarthWorks will receive a $25,000 unrestricted grant from the Citizens Bank Foundation and extensive media coverage and promotional support from NECN.
“We commend EarthWorks for its leadership in preserving nature and all its beauty in greater Boston and encouraging its residents to join in the effort,” said Robert E. Smyth, Chairman, President and CEO of Citizens Bank of Massachusetts. “We are delighted to join NECN in saluting EarthWorks and the significant strides it is making in restoring urban green space, planting trees and orchards, and improving air quality and climate for urban residents as well as safeguarding the city’s natural areas for people and wildlife alike.”
Founded in 1989, EarthWorks was established to create a healthier, more sustainable environment for the residents of greater Boston, particularly in neighborhoods such as Roxbury, Mission Hill and Dorchester, where green space is limited. It offers environmental education, urban forestry and horticultural training programs for school children and urban teens and partners with neighborhood groups, volunteer organizations and the Boston Parks Department to plant trees, restore wildlife habitat and harvest locally grown fruit.
The organization was chosen as Citizens’ and NECN’s 20th Champion in Action for being a national leader in the urban environmental movement. Through its nationally recognized Urban Orchards program, EarthWorks engages members of the community in improving the environment and its neighborhoods by working with them to plant and maintain fruit orchards on public land. To date, it has planted 60 public orchards in greater Boston. Residents share in the harvest, while developing a deeper understanding of how locally grown fruit contributes to a city’s sustainability, conserves scarce natural resources and reduces the production of greenhouse gases. Since 1996, EarthWorks has provided more than 9,000 Boston public school students with innovative, hands-on environmental education.
“EarthWorks is an incredibly impressive organization whose goals of making Boston greener and its citizens better informed about their environment is laudatory and noble,’’ said Philip S. Balboni, the founder and president of NECN. “We are delighted to join Citizens Bank in honoring EarthWorks for its important work in helping make the city a healthier, more welcoming place to live and to visit.’’
EarthWorks is being recognized for:
• Engaging Boston Public School students in an outdoor classroom program that encourages them to learn and appreciate ecology.
• Operating after-school and summer urban-forestry and horticultural training programs for urban teens that involve them in the planning, decision-making and implementation of projects that create lasting environmental improvements in their communities.
• Creating the Setback Trees program that actively identifies and replaces gaps in the street-tree canopy in Boston neighborhoods.
• Recognizing the important benefits street trees provide to residents, including reducing asthma rates in children, providing cooler and quieter streets, and improving air quality and reducing water pollution.
• Earning the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs’ “Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Environmental Education” in 2000 and 2007.
As a Champion in Action, EarthWorks receives:
• A $25,000 contribution in unrestricted funds from the Citizens Bank Foundation.
• Media coverage from NECN, including public service announcements, news stories and segments on other NECN programs such as NewsNight and New England Business Day.
• Volunteer support from Citizens and NECN employees.
• Extensive public relations support.
• Promotional support highlighting the Champion in Action in all Citizens Bank branches and on its ATMs.
• Exposure on both Citizens Bank and NECN Web sites.
“As a small grassroots non-profit, EarthWorks has historically focused almost exclusively on the work at hand, with little investment in self promotion,” said Christine James, Executive Director of EarthWorks. “The media coverage from NECN and the funding and promotional support from Citizens Bank that accompany this award will help us increase public awareness, build our membership base, diversify and expand our financial supports, and engage more residents of all ages and backgrounds in efforts to create a healthier, more sustainable urban environment. The board, staff and members of EarthWorks extend our sincere gratitude to Citizens Bank and NECN for their generous support.”
Since introducing the program in 2002, Citizens has awarded 20 Massachusetts organizations $500,000.
To learn more about EarthWorks, please visit www.earthworksboston.org.
About Citizens Bank of Massachusetts
Citizens Bank of Massachusetts is a $35 billion bank with 264 branches and 613 ATMs stretching from greater Boston to Cape Cod and the Berkshires. It is headquartered at 28 State Street in Boston. It is a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a $161 billion commercial bank holding company headquartered in Providence, R.I. Citizens has more than 1,600 branches, approximately 3,100 ATMs and more than 25,000 employees. It has a 13-state retail branch network plus non-branch retail and commercial offices in about 40 states. Citizens is the eighth-largest commercial banking company in the United States ranked by deposits and ninth in assets as of September 30, 2006. Citizens is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc).
About NECN
NECN is headquartered in Newton, Mass. and is the largest regional news network in the country. Founded in March 1992, the station is a partnership between The Hearst Corporation and Comcast, and serves more than 3.6 million cable subscribers in more than 1,000 communities throughout New England. The news network operates new-gathering bureaus in Worcester, Mass.; Hartford, Conn.; Manchester, N.H.; Burlington, Vt.; and Portland, Maine, and has editorial partnerships with many of the region’s most important newspapers including The Boston Globe.
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