California First Lady Maria Shriver Announces Recipients of The Minerva Awards(R) 2009 to be Honored at The Women's Conference

Dr. Kathy Hull, Dr. Jane Goodall, Agnes Stevens and Helen Devore Waukazoo To Be Recognized by Shriver for their Remarkable Legacies of Service to California and the Nation


LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14  /PRNewswire/ -- California First Lady Maria Shriver announced today the recipients of The Minerva Awards 2009, continuing her tradition of honoring the year's most remarkable women and highlighting their extraordinary legacies of service and contributions to California and the nation.

  The Minerva Awards 2009 will be presented to the following four women:
  --  Dr. Kathy Hull - Founder of the George Mark Children's House in San
      Leandro, the first freestanding residential pediatric palliative care
      center in the United States;
  --  Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE - Renowned primatologist and conservationist,
      Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace, Founder
      of Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots, a global environmental and
      humanitarian youth organization, and author of the recently published
      book, Hope for Animals and Their World;
  --  Agnes Stevens - Founder of School on Wheels, which provides
      educational opportunities and one-on-one tutoring to homeless children
      ages 6 to 18 in Southern California; and

  --  Helen Devore Waukazoo - Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Bay
      Area-based Friendship House, which provides residential substance
      abuse treatment for American Indians.




"This year's Minerva Award honorees are true Architects of Change," said First Lady Maria Shriver. "They are women who have pursued their own path and true purpose and who passionately dedicate themselves to the service of others. Each of these remarkable women strive to make a difference every day and, by their example, inspire us to do the same."

Shriver will personally present the honorees with their awards at a special ceremony during the afternoon session of The Women's Conference on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. The Minerva Awards session will be hosted by Shriver and will also feature remarks by Caroline Kennedy and Alicia Keys.

Again this year, conference organizers will be reconfiguring floor seating in the Long Beach Convention Center's main arena to expand capacity and offer a separately-ticketed event featuring The Minerva Awards ceremony. A limited number of $40 tickets for The Minerva Awards program are still available at http://www.womensconference.org/.

The Minerva Awards ceremony will also be broadcast live at http://www.womensconference.org/, beginning at 5:00 p.m. PDT.

Created by Shriver in 2004, The Minerva Awards have become the country's most prestigious awards given to women "who serve on the front-lines of humanity." Named for the Roman goddess Minerva who graces the California State Seal, the awards annually honor remarkable women who, in the spirit of Minerva, changed California and the nation with their courage, strength and wisdom. The Minerva Award winners also receive grants from the conference to further their work.

Previous Minerva Award recipients Billie Jean King and U.S. Navy Captain Maureen Pennington joined Shriver in congratulating this year's honorees.

"Once again, Maria has selected a group of strong, wise and courageous women who truly embody the spirit of Minerva," said social justice pioneer and 2008 Minerva Award recipient Billie Jean King. "All of these women have shown us the importance of leading by example, and in doing so have become champions in life and created new opportunities for many, many others."

"I applaud the accomplishments of this year's Minerva Award honorees," said Captain Pennington, a Minerva Award winner in 2007. "Each one of these remarkable women identified a problem in the world and pursued a solution with wisdom, strength and perseverance. It is truly an honor to have my name associated with a group of such courageous and compassionate women."

Shriver is also joined again this year by Target, which has partnered with The Women's Conference to sponsor The Minerva Awards for the sixth consecutive year.

"Target is proud to continue its support of The Minerva Awards, as a way to celebrate the contributions and achievements of millions of women in California and around the world," said Laysha Ward, president, community relations, Target. "By recognizing and honoring the outstanding accomplishments of these amazing women, we hope to instill the power of volunteerism and service and inspire other women to succeed."

Minerva Award recipients have made extraordinary contributions in the areas of the Arts, Health and Sciences, Community Activism, Human Rights, Business and Technology, Motherhood, Innovation, Education and Finance.

This year, for the first time, The Women's Conference invited the public to participate in its Minerva Award research through an online recommendation process on its Web site. This year's honorees were selected from a pool of more than 1,000 candidates, 400 of which originated from the online recommendation process. The pool of candidates were vetted and narrowed down by a conference research team. Shriver then selected the honorees from a list of 20 finalists.

Past Minerva Award recipients have included former First Lady Betty Ford ('05), Olympian Anita de Frantz ('05), Billie Jean King ('08), family literacy pioneer Sister Jennie Lechtenberg ('05), the Honorable Nancy Pelosi ('07), Sally Ride ('06), Eunice Kennedy Shriver ('07) and Gloria Steinem ('08).

The achievements of Minerva Award winners are chronicled in a permanent, conference-funded exhibit at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento, and have become part of California's official archive. For more information on The California Museum, visit: http://www.californiamuseum.org/.

About The Women's Conference

Hosted by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver, the annual non-partisan Women's Conference is the nation's premier forum for women. The purpose of The Women's Conference event is to empower, inspire and educate women to be Architects of Change in their own lives, in their communities, and around the world. More than 20,000 women attend the two-day conference and many thousands more watch the event live online. The Women's Conference is a production of the non-profit California Governor and First Lady's Conference on Women, which has formed partnerships with organizations and businesses that share its mission to develop far-reaching programs and initiatives that empower women throughout the year: WE Invest, WE Connect, WE Educate, WE Act, WE Inspire and WE Honor (The Minerva Awards) . For more information about The Women's Conference, The Minerva Awards and the WE Programs, visit: http://www.womensconference.org/.

About Target

Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) serves guests at 1,719 stores in 49 states nationwide and at Target.com. Target is committed to providing a fun and convenient shopping experience with access to unique and highly differentiated products at affordable prices. Since 1946, the corporation has given 5 percent of its income through community grants and programs like Take Charge of Education. Today, that giving equals more than $3 million a week. For more information about Target's community giving, visit http://www.target.com/community. 

DATASOURCE: The Women's Conference



CONTACT:  Marissa Moss, [phone], , for



Web Site:  http://www.californiawomen.org/ 

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