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Winners of the Purpose Prize Awarded by the White House
July 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Posted by: Kathleen Daniel
Last week, President Obama met at the White House with winners of the Purpose Prize, the award from Civic Ventures given to outstanding individuals over the age of 60 who are taking on challenges to make society better. The six winners who met with Mr. Obama are social innovators seeking solutions to problems ranging from rural poverty to infant mortality and environmental protection. We’ve posted before on boomers as social entrepreneurs seeking to give back to community, and on Civic Ventures, the think tank on boomers, work, and social purpose that calls for boomers to apply their experience in ‘encore careers’ to solve social problems – complementing the idea that the second half of adult life is a time of individual renewal. The Elder Women’s Circle is also a new twist of that “trend” – one that is as old as time.
Pictured is Arlene Blum, UC Berkeley chemist, whose research helped remove Tris, a toxic fire-retardant, from children’s sleepwear. She recently won a victory that kept 1.7 billion pounds of chemicals out of electronic equipment made worldwide, and is now pressing California regulators to reduce toxic fire-retardant chemicals in furniture and children’s products in that state. Her Green Science Policy Institute is a new model for engaging industry, scientists, governments and nonprofits to bring unbiased data to facilitate more informed decision-making about chemicals used in consumer products and support healthy communities.
I love awards like this. I feel a desperate need for a new legacy to leave to our children – of new values of purposefulness and giving back to community, as well as a new model of the possibility, leadership and change that arrives in adulthood . Being rewarded for encore careers is a positive story of age and aging – one that gives all of us something to celebrate.
Kudos! Happy a Happy 4th!
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