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Accomplishments

Alaska Youth for Environmental Action members have improved the environmental health of their schools and communities through sustainable projects and campaigns. AYEA members have made visible impacts on solid waste/recycling, toxics/”right to know” and climate change issues that affect a diverse array of people throughout the state.

AYEA teens have received over 55 national, state, and local awards in the past, including the President’s Environmental Youth Award, Spirit of Youth Award, ACF Denny Wilcher Award and more!

Member Awards

ACF Denny Wilcher Award for young Environmental Activists (AYEA teens have won the Denny Wilcher Award from ACF 11 out of the past 12 years!): Jamie Bourgeious (1999), Lousia Bolton-Ast (1999), Angela Peters (1999), Makela Mahoney (2000), Nathan Senner (2000), Caitlin Stern (2001), Meghan Sinnott (2001), John Sikes (2001), Jonas Parker (2001), Sarah Bryner (2002), Jessica Lazar (2002), Carly Allen (2002), Corey Rennell (2003), Deborah Malinowski (2003), Megan McBride (2003), Verner Wilson, III (2004), Abigail Turner (2005), Cheryl Lockwood (2007), Bryce Timm (2008), Megan Waggoner (2009), and Oceana Wills (2010) 

Spirit of Youth Award: Oceana Wills (2010)- Business and Government Category, Zoe Fuller (2009)- Science and Environment Category

Caring for the Kenai Environmental Awareness Competition: Frey Chay of Kenai claimed top honors and a $1,500 cash prize at the annual Caring for the Kenai environmental awareness competition. She wrote an amendment to the passed Alaska Sustainable Energy Act SB 220 allowing local governments to exempt alternative energy systems from real property tax.

Alaska Association of Bilingual education essay Contest: Girla Sorensen, Dillingham, was the statewide grand-prize winning essayist for the Alaska Association of Bilingual Education’s annual essay contest on the theme “I’m proud to be an Alaskan and bilingual.”


Brower Youth Award: Tanielle Waggoner (2003), Megan Waggoner (2009 finalist)

Toxics Accomplishments

  • Helped pass statewide legislation requiring monitoring and regulation of cruise ship pollution
  • Helped pass statewide legislation requiring pesticide tracking for commercial applicators
  • Implemented groundbreaking policy on toxic pesticides in the Anchorage School District
  • Helped pass & protect Anchorage municipal law requiring public notification for pesticide use
  • Helped pass statewide legislation requiring labeling of salmon as wild-caught or farmed
  • Helped pass statewide legislation requiring labeling of fish/ shellfish products’ country of origin Implemented Idle-Free Zones at several high schools to protect school children from inhaling harmful vehicle emissions
  • Helped pass a law banning aerial pesticide spraying on subsistence lands used by southeast Alaska Native groups.

Recycling & Solid Waste Issues

  • Developed an award-winning recycling education booklet Alaska Youth Reach out and Recycle in demand by teachers, tribes, and community organizations, 2003.
  • Established the first successful plastics recycling program in the Kenai Peninsula.
  • Established Green Star recycling programs in Sitka and Anchorage.
  • Implemented successful paper recycling and plastics recycling in Juneau.
  • Developed an outreach and education campaign about lead acid batteries in Galena.
  • Established municipal proclamation declaring Anchorage Recycles Day and Juneau Recycles Day in conjunction with the nationally recognized America Recycles Day: November 15.
  • Partnered with Green Star to pilot a sustainable recycling and hauling system throughout the Anchorage School District.
  • Successfully lobbied the Anchorage School District and the Municipal Assembly to pass the district-wide recycling program, 2009.
  • Organized a statewide “Week Without Plastics” and had a youth press conference with then Mayor Mark Begich, 2009
  • The Juneau chapter successfully convinced  their high school to switch to reusable silver wear instead of plastic wear in their cafeteria in 2010.
  • The Yakutat chapter kept 980 plastic bags out of the waste stream in 2009.
  • The Dillingham Chapter: “Rebels to the Pebble” convinced Josten’s to sign the Bristol Bay Protection Pledge saying “no” to gold from Pebble Mine. 

Climate Change & Renewable Energy

  • Selected to send the only US delegates to the International Youth Eco-Forum on Climate Change and renewable energy in Hokkaido, Japan and Akureyri, Iceland.
  • Partnered with the Renewable Energy Alaska Project to promote the sale of Green Tags in Alaska (these tags invest funds in Alaska-based renewable energy projects).
  • Provided a youth voice on sensible renewable energy projects
  • Generated statewide radio and print media on youth impacted by climate change issues
  • Circulated a youth-written “Letter to our Leaders” to be signed by thousands of Alaskan teens requesting national leaders like Ted Stevens and Mark Begich to take a stand on climate change, 2006.
  • Ran a statewide 3-2-1 energy efficiency campaign, and had pledges signed by citizens and legislators, including Senator Lisa Murkowski in Washington D.C.

AYEA has been recognized by the Spirit of Youth for “bringing teens from diverse areas of the State together to learn about and address global warming an other environmental issues using traditional and western approach to offer solutions to problems!”

AYEA was Recognized by the President of the United States for their work in the environmental protection services.