CFK History
..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
21 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 Tesoro, 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, Carol 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 - Kenai , April 19, 2007 -- Molly Watkins impressed the judges with her replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient compact florescent light bulbs (CFL) but with her efforts to get local residents to make the switch and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.Hanna has received assistance from HEA to further her project to “ Make the Switch”
- Kenai, April 17, 2008– With the dedication of a new “Kardinal Red” curtain for the KCHS Little Theatre, compliments of Caring for the Kenai sponsors Chevron and Agrium, the annual environmental and disaster preparedness competition got underway Thursday evening. Lincoln Wensley, a KCHS sophomore from Rick Frederic’s science class, took first place honors and $1,500 cash at the 18th Caring for the Kenai (CFK) competition. “I’m really proud to be here and to be a CFK Champion from KCHS,” said Wensley, “The competition was really stiff and with only 1 point separating James and me it was pretty amazing.” Wensley’s winning project focused on educating the public about how important the dunes are to the ecology of the Kenai beach.
- 2009 - 2008 CFK winner Lincoln Wensley of Kenai Central High School was selected by the Environmental Protection Agency Region #10 to receive the President’s Environmental Youth Award (PEYA). This is the fifth past CFK winner who has been chosen for the distinguished PEYA award. Wensley attended the PEYA presentation at the EPA headquarters in Washington D.C. where EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson honored Wensley at a formal ceremony with the prestigious PEYA award on behalf of President Barak Obama. Additionally Lincoln’s project to preserve the Kenai Dunes won him the national Prudential Spirit of Community Award which earned him $1,000 cash and another trip to the nation’s capital.
- 2008-2009 Olivia Pfeifer’s winning idea for airport bird control becomes known as ABC Dog. Olivia goes on to contact sponsors and the City of Kenai to raise funds to lease a boarder collie as an experiment for hazing birds at the Kenai airport. With the help of the Kenai Watershed Forum Olivia raises nearly $10,000 and during the summer of 2010 Rose flushed 1,367 birds from the Kenai airport during 70 runs, preventing bird strikes with aircraft and reducing the number of birds euthanized at the Airport. ABC Dog project is still being evaluated by governmental agencies and has received national media attention.
- 2009-2010 Governor Sean Parnell signs into law a bill that allows for alternate energy credits to homeowners. The amendment to the bill was the CFK winning project of KCHS Freshman Freya Chay. In the fall of 2010 Chay was selected as one of six young Americans to receive the prestigious Brower Youth Award, a trip to San Francisco, national recognition, and a $3,000.00 cash award.
- 2010-2011 Kelsie Leaf CFK winner is invited to Kansas City as part of the City of Kenai’s All America City presentation to share with the whole nation her award winning CFK Gift of Green. Kenai won the 2011 All America City and CFK is launched as a national program.