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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/37851/full/37851/growing-up-with-the-green-nobel-goldman-environmental-prize-inspires-grandc/ <br /><br /> <b>Growing up with the ‘Green Nobel’: Goldman Environmental Prize inspires founder’s grandchildren</b> <br /> Thursday, April 23, 2009 | by stacey palevsky <br /><br /><p>There is one particular Sunday that Jessica Goldman looks forward to months in advance: the Sunday before the Goldman Environmental Prize is awarded.</p> <p>On that day each year, she and other members of the Goldman family head to Grandpa’s house, where she and the other grandchildren meet with the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, informally called the “Green Nobel.”</p> <p>“Grandpa” is Richard Goldman of San Francisco, the Jewish philanthropist who, with his late wife, Rhoda, founded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1989. It has become one of the most respected environmental awards in the world.</p> <p>And so this year, on April 19, a day before the packed awards ceremony at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, Jessica and her parents, aunts, uncles and cousins gathered at Richard’s for dinner.</p> <p>The multicultural crowd ate, shmoozed and watched short films about the prizewinners that were to be viewed by 3,000 people at the ceremony the following night.</p> <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 360px;"><img alt="BAgoldman" class="left" height="271" src="/images/uploads/z_photos_2009/zh_04_24_09/BAgoldman.jpg" title="Richard Goldman (center) shakes hands with actor Robert Redford April 20 at the Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony in San Francisco. Looking on are (from left) Goldman’s grandson Matthew Goldman, son John Goldman and grandson Jason Goldman. photo /courtesy of goldman environmental foundation" width="360" /> <div class="caption">Richard Goldman (center) shakes hands with actor Robert Redford April 20 at the Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony in San Francisco. Looking on are (from left) Goldman’s grandson Matthew Goldman, son John Goldman and grandson Jason Goldman. photo /courtesy of goldman environmental foundation</div> </div> Jessica’s earliest memories of the prize are dinner at Grandpa’s house when she was 6 years old. <p>That was in 1990, the first year the awards were given. Everyone gathered around a television and watched the films on VHS tapes (today they’re on DVD and viewed on a large-screen television).</p> <p>“I love meeting the winners in such an intimate, casual setting,” Jessica said during a phone interview before this year’s ceremony.</p> <p>For the past 19 years, the Goldman Environmental Prize has honored 133 grassroots environmental activists from 75 countries on six continents.</p> <p>The winners — this year from the United States, Russia, Bangladesh, Bali, Gabon and Suriname — received their awards during the April 20 ceremony. They also get $150,000 to support their work, and meet with dignitaries and politicians in Washington, D.C.</p> <p>But “so much of this is not about the money,” Jessica said. “Ninety percent of what the prize does is increase awareness and advocacy.”</p> <p>At this year’s ceremony, Richard Goldman’s two sons, John and Douglas, and his daughter, Susan Gelman, walked the 89-year-old man on stage. He stood at the podium and asked the third generation — his grandchildren — to stand and be recognized. His six grandchildren in attendance, including Jessica, stood up.</p> <p>“This is going to be passed down — we have a responsibility to carry this on, and I will proudly and be honored to do that,” Jessica said.</p> <p>Connecting his 11 grandchildren to prizewinners is one of several ways Richard Goldman encourages them to think carefully about their place in the philanthropic and environmental world.</p> <p>In 2000, he set up a Grandchildren’s Fund, accessible to each when they turned 18.</p> <p>“I wanted to help them get started in being philanthropic,” he said.</p> <p>To date, the grandchildren, now all older than 18, have awarded 264 grants totaling $2.1 million. That money has been given to organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Project Open Hand and the Stern Grove Festival, as well as Jewish nonprofits, including the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, Birthright Israel and Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger.</p> <p>“Philanthropy is the point where I feel most connected to my grandparents,” said Jessica, speaking on behalf of the grandchildren.</p> <p>Jessica also once traveled to visit a winner of the Goldman Prize in his homeland. In Kenya, she met 1990 winner Michael Werikhe, also known as “Rhino Man,” a nickname bestowed upon him when he walked thousands of miles in East Africa, Europe and North America to raise public awareness and money for the endangered black rhinoceros.</p> <p>Her new goal is to travel once a year to a prizewinner’s home. In November, she intends to visit Bali, where Yuyun Ismawati lives. The 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize recipient created Bali Fokus, through which she established a sustainable waste management system that provides employment opportunities to low-income people and empowers them to improve the environment.</p> <p>“One of the most important messages of the prize is that you don’t need to have a law degree or be an environmental engineer,” Jessica said. “You just have to have a good idea.”</p> <p>The six winners of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize live in big cities and remote rainforests, speak languages as varied as Bahasa Indonesian and Saramaccan, and work tirelessly to protect the water, air or soil in their native lands. Some have been jailed, some celebrated.</p> <p>At the awards ceremony, every winner spoke about being inspired by their parents and grandparents, or by their desire to preserve the Earth for their children and grandchildren.</p> <p>“My grandparents and parents taught me that the land we walked upon was sacred,” said Maria Gunnoe, the North American prizewinner. She is fighting to ensure the West Virginia valley where she grew up will be safe and clean for her own teenage children.</p> <p>Likewise, Richard Goldman was influenced by his parents at a young age. They encouraged him to explore San Francisco’s Presidio, “a big backyard” one block from their home. They often took him to Yosemite National Park. Those trips introduced him to the delicate beauty of the planet and cultivated a reverence for environmental activism.</p> <p>“Twenty years from now, when I won’t be around, we’ll still be [awarding the Goldman Environmental Prize], as long as there’s a need,” he said. “And it’s quite apparent to us the need is very prominent.”</p>

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