Belmont freshman Maren Johnson, of Watertown, S.D., has been named the winner of the N.0.W. Youth Leadership Award from the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN).
Johnson, who is the student ambassador for the Global Soap Project, will be given the award at the CEHN 2013 Annual Child Health Advocate Award Reception in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 17. The award was created in 2012 to identify “a young person who deserved to be recognized for their exceptional environmental health leadership.”
During the past three years, Johnson has created a network of about 130 hotels and more than 500 volunteers in four Upper Midwest States and two Canadian provinces to collect used hotel soap for recycling through the Global Soap Project, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. Johnson’s network has collected about 25 thousand pounds of soap, enough to make about 100,000 bars of new soap, all of which will help vulnerable populations around the world.
“I am extremely honored and humbled to be recognized by the Children’s Environmental Health Network,” Johnson said. “I’ve discovered there are thousands of volunteers eagerly looking to improve the health of children throughout the world, and the Global Soap Project is one way we can make a difference. Solutions can be as nearby as our trash cans.”