..CFK shows how mindful Alaskans are of their
needs to preserve their environment . . . a terrific
idea with applicability to all of America.
-- Charlie Gibson, ABC's Good Morning America

 

CFK History: An Alaskan Success Story
18 years and counting... CFK is a cooperative effort of the entire Kenai Peninsula community. Every spring, students from Port Graham to Seward and everywhere in between take on the challenge of improving their local environment. Each year more of the ideas are receiving community support and assistance for implementation. Watching their environmental ideas turn into realities is a milepost in their educations. Our youth's efforts reflect their commitment to enhance and enrich their home - the Kenai Peninsula. The results of this innovative concept, sponsored by Chevron and Agrium, and created by Sikorski Consulting of Soldotna, has been remarkable:

• 1991 - A CFK entry to create a polyculture greenhouse went on to receive a $78,000 grant from the AK Science and Technology Foundation and has become a successful business.
• 1994 - Serena Woods debuted her winning CFK environmental educational curriculum for elementary schools on ABC's "Good Morning America."
• 1996 - CFK winner Patrick Bennett is hired by the program on how to preserve the Kenai River on the interned and at the Kenai River Center. In the spring of 1998 at a White House presentation in D.C., EPA administrator, Carrol Browner, honored Patrick Bennett and his CFK sponsors with the President's Environmental Youth Award.
• 1998 - 1997 CFK winner Alden Ford produces 1000 copies of his interactive computer program called "The Kenai Peninsula's Amazing Water Maze." The program is being distributed to schools and homes throughout Alaska and across America by The Nature Conservancy. It was produced in cooperation with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Kenai River Sportfishing Association. The program allows students to explore the physics, biology, and chemistry of various aspects of the life of a watershed.
• 1998 - A song, "What's the Solution?", written and performed by Arianna Sikorski, takes top CFK honors. Her idea to utilize the arts and mass media to promote environmental awareness has gone on to be produced by Unocal and released internationally on CD for radio and television air play.
• 1999 - As the millennium closes, a team of seniors, Michael Penland, Eric Soderquist, and Paul Kim parlay a government class assignment into first place CFK money. Their idea is the rehabilitation of Soldotna Creek Park, a salmon spawning tributary of the Kenai River. With community and city support, the team designed, permitted, acquired funding for, and did the labor required to complete the habitat enhancement project during the summer of 1999.
• 2000 - 1997 CFK winner Alden Ford follows in his predecessor's footsteps by winning a trip to Washington, D.C. for the President's Environmental Youth Award. He and the winners from the other 9 regions in the U.S. stayed for a week in D.C. and received their awards from Carol M. Browner, EPA administrator, in the White House's Indian Treaty Room.
• 2002 - CFK 2000 4th place winner Nick Horn, who helped implement a tax credit for property owners who do river bank preservation and rehab projects, wins the Presidential Environmental Youth Award for his "Habitat Tax Credit Program."
• 2004 - Marit Hartvigson successfully implements her project, "Stream Keepers Walkway."
• 2005 – Marit Hartvigson’s Slikok Creek project is selected by EPA Region#10 to receive the Presidents Environmental Youth Award and is honored by U.S. President George W. Bush at a White House Reception in April 2006. Marit is the 4th CFK winner to be honored with this award.
• 2006 – CFK 2005 Winner Hannah Watkins receives the ’06 Prudential Spirit of Community Award and a trip to Washington D.C. to receive a check for $1,000.
  The National Prudential award honors a young person in middle level and high school grades for outstanding volunteer service to their communities

 

 

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