Manhattan Beach Boy Honored with President's Environmental Youth Award

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that an 11-year-old Manhattan Beach boy will receive the President's Environmental Youth Award for his water conservation efforts.

As a fifth-grader at Meadows Elementary School, Joshua Cigoianu was inspired to do a water conservation project after learning about California's drought.

Working closely with the school principal, he implemented an action plan that included educating his fellow students through signage, changing the way art brushes were cleaned in the classroom to reduce the amount of water used, and ensuring that there were adequate recycle bins for water bottles.

Joshua also started an Earth Library at the school -- creating both a reference list of environmental protection books and writing 17 personal reviews -- and advocated for the use of reusable water bottles while giving out "Meadows Water Hero" stickers to those who participated.

"During a severe drought, finding ways to conserve our precious water is everyone's responsibility," said Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "EPA is proud to honor Joshua's extraordinary effort to engage fellow students in environmental action and better the lives of those in his community and future generations."

The national award is presented each year to exceptional students who demonstrate creativity, innovation and leadership to address difficult environmental challenges.

--City News Service, photo courtesy of ActionforNature.org