Thanks to rousing support from San Diegans, nearly 3,500 online votes were cast to identify the first, second- and third-place youth and adult winners of the Cox Conserves Heroes awards program. In February, Cox Communications and The Trust for Public Land, launched the Cox Conserves Heroes program and solicited input from the public to nominate their favorite volunteer environmental heroes who continue to make great strides in ensuring a greener tomorrow.
 
Sponsored by Think Blue San Diego and Stand for Less, the Cox Conserves Heroes program featured an online nomination process for the public to identify San Diego’s everyday conservationists. 

A judging panel selected three youth and three adult finalists. To help the public learn more about the nominees, the finalists were profiled on San Diego Insider Magazine on Channel 4 San Diego, and their stories were posted on www.4sd.com and www.coxconservesheroes.com.

At a special ceremony at the Hotel Solamar, an eco-friendly Kimpton hotel located in downtown San Diego, the winners in each category were presented with $5,000 to donate to their favorite environmental non-profit organization. The first- and second-place finalists in each category received $2,500 and $1,000, respectively, for the environmental non-profit of their choice.  All finalists will be recognized on the field at the Padres game on August 22, 2009.

Cox Conserves Heroes Winners

$5,000 – (Youth) Sonya Vargas was one of two youth members who served on the steering committee for the Wetland Avengers/ Campeones de los Canones, a community-based habitat education and restoration event. Through her leadership, more than 950 volunteers planted 2,500 native plants, restored two acres of canyon and wetland habitat, created a school garden, and designed an outdoor classroom. Vargas will donate her prize money to Aquatic Adventures Science Education Foundation.
 
$5,000 – (Adult) John Willett was nominated for his efforts with Reclaiming the Otay River Valley in the Otay Valley Regional Park (OVRP), a 13-mile unique urban river parkway in the South Bay. He has volunteered in the park for more than two decades, and thanks to his efforts an  estimated 700 tires, 1,400 tons of trash and 150 homeless encampments have been removed. Willett will donate his prize money to Wildcoast.

Youth Finalists

$2,500 - Jennifer Gold is the founder and president of Valhalla High School’s Recycling Club. Through Gold’s leadership the club placed recycling bins throughout the campus and now sorts and sends the recyclable materials to a recycling center, instead of sending these items to a public dump site. She will donate her prize money to the Surfrider Foundation of San Diego.

$1,000 - Jose Mendoza, is a student at Hoover High School and the president of the Hoover Eco Club. As an organizer of the Friends of Swan Canyon,  volunteers have removed trash and non-native plants and have reduced gang activity and the homeless population in the canyon.  Mendoza will donate his prize money to San Diego Canyonlands.

Adult Finalists

$2,500 - Josie Hamada is an exemplary member of the San Ysidro Women's Club. Through the 9-11 One Hundred Cherry Tree Peace Grove project, Hamada’s small community garden project was transformed into a county-wide attraction. The Beyer Elementary school playground used to be a barren, dirt lot until Hamada transformed it into a peaceful grove consisting of 100 cherry trees. She will donate her prize money to Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve.

$1,000 - Diane Nygaard formed Preserve Calavera, which has protected, preserved and added land to this beautiful watershed area in northern San Diego County. She has organized community clean-ups, held Wildlife Appreciation events, birding walks, and hosted cultural lectures about the valley. Nygaard will donate her prize money to Preserve Calavera.

The $17,000 in prize money was provided by the Cox Kids Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Cox Communications in San Diego. The foundation is funded by Cox employees, who donate money directly from their paychecks that is matched 100 percent by the company.