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MEDIA ADVISORY

2008 Beautification Winners will be announced in July

 

Here is the press release for the 2007 Beautification Award Winners

 

Media Contact Dee Dee Workman, San Francisco Beautiful: (415) 421-2608 / deedeew@sfbeautiful.org

  

San Francisco Beautiful Announces Annual “Beautification Award” Winners

www.sfbeautiful.org

 

Theme of this year’s Awards is

“Lasting Urban Beauty: The Challenge of Keeping San Francisco Beautiful”

 

Nonprofit founded to Save the Cable Cars Celebrates 60h Anniversary

in City Hall Gala on October 18

 

Winners include:

Palace of Fine Arts Lagoon Restoration

Mt. Sutro Native Plant Garden and Trail Network

Kid Serve Youth Murals

24th Street Mini-Park

San Francisco Airport Gateway Garden

 

Friedel Klussmann Award goes to Victoria Manolo Draves Park and Bessie Carmichael School

 

Robert C. Friese Award for Neighborhood Conservation awarded to

Friends of Duboce Park and Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association

 

Media Note: High-resolution digital images of this year’s winners may be found online at:

http://www.davidperry.com/ga_sfbeautiful.html

 

24 September 2007 – San Francisco, CA: For the past 35 years, San Francisco Beautiful (www.sfbeautiful.org) – the esteemed nonprofit founded 60 years ago to save the then-endangered  (now iconic) Cable Cars – has recognized individuals, organizations, community groups, and businesses that improve the quality of life in San Francisco through its annual Beautification Awards.  This year’s winners run the gamut from the restoration of the lagoon surrounding the internationally recognized San Francisco icon Palace of Fine Arts to the SFO Gateway Garden; from a project created by Kids Serve Youth Murals and a mini-park at 24th Street to a native plant garden and trail network on Mount Sutro. The Friedel Klussmann Award  – named for San Francisco Beautiful’s legendary founder – will go to the Victoria Manolo Draves Park and Bessie Carmichael School in recognition of their construction of a new park across from the first new public elementary school built in the City in many years. Additionally, the Robert C. Friese Award for Neighborhood Conservation will be awarded to Friends of Duboce Park and Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association. This year’s awards, granted around the theme “Lasting Urban Beauty: The Challenge of Keeping San Francisco Beautiful,” will be given out at San Francisco Beautiful’s 60th Anniversary Gala on October 18 at San Francisco City Hall.

 

“All of these award winners have one thing in common – they help make San Francisco beautiful,” said Dee Dee Workman, marking her 10th year as Executive Director for San Francisco Beautiful. “San Francisco Beautiful’s 60th Anniversary Awards dinner will bring together community leaders, activists, and philanthropists to celebrate the outstanding achievements of this year’s award winners.”

 

From restoring landmarks to saving parks, the nonprofit San Francisco Beautiful acts for the benefit of all who live, work and play in San Francisco.  Through civic initiatives and outreach, grants, and award programs, San Francisco Beautiful helps ensure that this celebrated City by the Bay becomes even better.  On Thursday, October 18, San Francisco Beautiful will hold its 60th Anniversary Celebration and Beautification Awards Dinner in San Francisco City Hall.  For the past 35 years, the Beautification Awards have recognized individuals, organizations, community groups, and businesses that improve the quality of life in San Francisco.

 

City resident Friedel Klussmann founded San Francisco Beautiful in 1947 as an outgrowth of her successful effort to save the city’s Cable Cars.   Her one-woman campaign made possible the preservation of these internationally-beloved icons – the only “Moving National Monument” in the United States.  San Francisco Beautiful is the only organization in the City whose sole purpose is to protect and enhance the urban environment: working year round to improve the quality of daily life, strengthen communities, and empower citizens to maintain the character of the city’s parks, neighborhoods and streets.

 

For more information and to access a podcast interview with San Francisco Beautiful Executive Director Dee Dee Workman, go to www.sfbeautiful.org.

 

Details about the 2007 Beautification Award Winners:

“Lasting Urban Beauty: The Challenge of Keeping San Francisco Beautiful”

 

Palace of Fine Arts Lagoon Restoration:  San Franciscans despaired when a chain link fence was erected around the lagoon to stop people from falling in due to the degradation of the pathways. Today the fencing is gone, replaced with low stone walls and native landscaping that snake around the clean and clear lagoon. The Palace of Fine Arts is drawing thousands of visitors once again as the first phase of its historic rehabilitation, the lagoon restoration, is completed.

 

Mt. Sutro Native Plant Garden and Trail Network: In the very center of the City, volunteers have restored a network of WPA-era pathways and maintain an abundant native plant garden that is “hidden in plain sight” on the top of Mount Sutro.

 

Kid Serve Youth Murals – “A Sign of Hope”: Josef Norris, the founder and director of this youth arts organization, worked with students at Gateway Charter High School to create a beautiful and moving mosaic mural memorial on the school’s Geary Boulevard façade.

 

24th Street Mini-Park: Neighborhood residents worked with the City’s Recreation and Park Department to turn an abandoned lot in the heart of the Mission District’s commercial corridor into a vibrantly colorful playground filled with artful climbing structures, fountains and seating areas.

 

San Francisco Airport Gateway Garden: A majestic and serene redwood forest at the entry to SFO greets visitors and traveling residents alike, creating an appropriate and gracious new gateway garden to San Francisco and the Bay Area.

 

Friedel Klussmann Award: Victoria Manolo Draves Park and Bessie Carmichael School: SOMA residents advocated for a new park and school in their inner-urban neighborhood over many decades. When newly-secured funding for the project was threatened, Supervisor Chris Daly and his staff worked to make sure that the project stayed on track. City staff worked with the neighbors to design and build a substantial and thriving new park just across the street from the first new public elementary school built in the City in many years.

 

Robert C. Friese Award for Neighborhood Conservation:  Friends of Duboce Park and Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association: Neighborhood volunteers have worked together over many years to ensure that the special character of the Duboce Triangle neighborhood is preserved, and the popular park that lies at its heart is usable for the entire community. A lovely new labyrinth on the Scott Street side of the park has created an unusual recreational amenity people of all ages can enjoy.

 

 

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SFB in the News: View press coverage
SFB's response to July Examiner editorial

Report on San Francisco Cable Cars

Podcasts:
David Perry interview Executive Director Dee Dee Workman

Golden Gate Bridge Advertising: Dee Dee Workman on KCBS radio

2007 Klussmann Grants

Visit SFB's Interactive Grants and
Beautification Awards Page
Grants/Awards Search Map

Grant Funds Available for Neighborhood Parks

Summer 2008 Edition of The Cable

What some other groups are doing:
Friends of the Urban Forest: Free tree planting Bayview Hunters Point September 20.
Neighbors Project: How to Host a Park Clean-up
Sunset Community Festival - September 27 :Greening the Sunset
SF Green Schoolyard Alliance:
2008 Growing Greener School Grounds Conference ~keynote speaker author Richard Louv~ October 10 & 11

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