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MICHIGAN ENVIRONMENTALIST HAROLD STOKES RECEIVES LIFETIME AWARD

Ecology Center Also Honors Four Others for Outstanding Achievements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 30, 2004

The Ecology Center announced the first winner of the newly created Herbert L. Munzel Award for Environmental Activism, and four winners of its 2004 annual awards for outstanding environmental work in the past year.

The Herbert L. Munzel Award for Environmental Activism honors inspirational, courageous, and effective community-based advocacy by a Michigan resident for clean air, safe water, and healthy communities over many years. The award is named after a long-time southeast Michigan resident who fought for clean air and water for over 40 years. The winner of the first Munzel Award is:

  • Harold Stokes (Redford)

    • Mr. Stokes has worked on countless campaigns for social and environmental justice since the mid-1930s. He has been an ever-present fixture at campaign rallies and public meetings on all of Michigan's most important environmental issues of the past 40 years, including controversies associated with nuclear power, incineration, air pollution, water quality, landfills, and the impact of globalization on local environmental protection. He has served in leadership roles with Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Michigan Environmental Council, Detroit Audubon Society, Sierra Club, and Ecology Center.

    In addition, four winners of the Ecology Center's annual awards for outstanding environmental work were announced.

  • Pier-George Zanoni (Lansing)

    • Mr. Zanoni was instrumental in establishing the Michigan Hospital Association's nationally prominent environmental committee. He has also been a leader in the creation of national green building standards for U.S. hospitals.

  • Pierre Gonyon (Chelsea)

    • Mr. Gonyon has implemented precedent-setting environmental health and safety programs at the St. Joseph Mercy Health System. He has also been a leader in instituting environmentally preferable practices within the Michigan Hospital Association.

  • Ann Arbor Township Committee for Land Preservation

    • The Ann Arbor Township Committee for Land Preservation led the successful campaign to enact a farmland preservation millage in Ann Arbor Township - only the second such program in Michigan. The Committee was chaired by Raymond Grew.

  • Students for PIRGIM (Ann Arbor)

    • Students for PIRGIM is a University of Michigan campus organization which mobilized hundreds of students and campus area residents to support the Ann Arbor Parks and Greenbelt proposal, a plan to save 7,000 acres of open space near Ann Arbor. The proposal was approved in a landslide vote. The group was led by U-M student Carolyn Hwang.

    For more information about the awards or honorees, please contact Stephanie Feldstein at (734) 761-3186 ext. 110. The Ecology Center is a 34-year-old regional environmental organization which works for clean air, safe water, and healthy communities. The Ecology Center is also the parent organization of Recycle Ann Arbor, one of the country's leading nonprofit recyclers.

    Contacts:
    Stephanie Feldstein (734) 761-3186 ext. 110