Pet Program for Sick Kids Is Among Latest ‘Points of Light’
October 5, 2000 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Following are the people and organizations that have most recently been named to receive President Clinton’s Daily Points of Light Award.
The Points of Light Foundation, a Washington charity, assists the president in making the choices and carrying out the award program. More information about the award winners and the program is available at the foundation’s Web site, http://pointsoflight.org, or by contacting the foundation at 1400 I Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington 20005; (202) 729-8184.
The recipients:
1723. Greenwood Cultural Center, Tulsa, Okla., a program for African-American youth that offers courses in the visual and fine arts, and provides after-school peer leadership to prevent violence.
1724. Susan Ciriello, East Longmeadow, Mass., who has contributed since 1990 to the general operations of Ronald McDonald House, supported the Special Olympics program, and coordinated events for poor families and their children.
1725. Canine Connection, Columbus, Ohio, a program that aims to reduce stress and increase patient responsiveness by supplying dogs as therapeutic pets to hospitalized children.
1726. Calixto Vasquez, Carrollton, Tex., who established Integrity, Motivation, Perseverance, Attitude, Character, and Truth (IMPACT), a mentor program to help at-risk children avoid gang-related violence and drug use, and to keep them in school through parent and mentor involvement.
1727. Patrice Williams, Los Angeles, who founded the Minorities in Broadcasting Training Program in 1993, which provides training opportunities to minority college graduates in TV and radio news reporting and news management.
1728. Whitney Thompson, Universal City, Tex., who founded the Jessica Landry Wellish City Heroes Legend Team, a volunteer group at her high school that conducts monthly community-service projects; she also helped other schools establish similar programs to address community issues.
1729. Kim Bobo, Chicago, who established and directs the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, a program that fights to improve the wages and working conditions of poultry workers across the country.
1730. Bonnie Bergin, Rohnert Park, Calif., who founded the High School Assistance Dog Program, which uses teenagers who are incarcerated or living in group homes to train golden retrievers to provide services to people with disabilities.
1731. Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, Falls Church, Va., a program established in 1962 that teaches functional literacy and English as a second language to adults.
1732. Eckerd Youth Alternatives, Clearwater, Fla., a wilderness camp that helps juvenile delinquents learn responsibility and self-respect through outdoor adventure training; more than 37,000 youths have gone through the program since its founding in 1968.
