Rewarding Excellence - The Commonwealth Awards
Since 2003, 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania has administered the Commonwealth Awards. This program is a juried, statewide awards event that recognizes organizations and individuals contributing to the economic vitality, environmental health, efficient use of land, and quality design in the Commonwealth.
The awards pay tribute to visionaries – developers and builders, designers, architects, and engineers, community leaders and local officials, financiers, and others – who have invested in building a better future for Pennsylvania. These leaders put smart growth to work by envisioning, promoting, designing, and building community projects that improve life for residents, employers, employees and visitors.
In past years, the awards recognized groundbreaking projects, and visionary individuals in Pennsylvania’s smart growth movement, people like business leader Louis Appell, Jr. from York, 10,000 Friends’ founder Joanne Denworth, environmentalist and Heinz Endowments Environmental Program Director Caren Glotfelty, real estate developer John Westrum, State Representative Bob Freeman and PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler. People that have led the way in smart growth.
The results of trailblazing efforts by these individuals and previous Commonwealth award winners can be seen as the latest award winners are examples of locally based activities – demonstrating the adoption of smart growth principles and policies. In recent years, we’ve recognized planners like Becky Bradley of Easton, community leaders like Christopher Bennick of the Habitat for Humanity, John Milius of Cranberry Township and Jonathon Schmidt of Southeast Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project and developers like Russell Ford of Harristown Development Corporation. These Individuals demonstrate the values of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania in their daily work of transforming communities.
This year, the 2011 Commonwealth Awards continues this tradition. The Call for Entries is up on our website and they’ll be arriving in mailboxes within the next couple weeks. Once there, you’ll find entry forms and more information. The entry deadline is June 15, 2011. The awards event will be September 20 from 4:30 PM to 9 PM at the Hilton Harrisburg. Please check our website for more information as we get closer to the event.
