A year after taking on the job of Spokane Riverkeeper, Bart Mihailovich is recognized with the Inlander’s Peirone Prize.
The Pacific Northwest Inlander has named Spokane Riverkeeper Bart Mihailovich as one of three winners of its 2nd annual Peirone Prize. The award, funded by the Peirone family, is dedicated to recognizing and rewarding young people in the inland Northwest who devote their lives to public service.
(photo, Pacific Northwest Inlander)
Sharing the award with Bart for 2011 are Brent and Amy Hendricks of Global Neighborhood, a non-profit devoted to helping refugees, and Coeur d’Alene’s Korrine Kreilkamp, the founder of Community Roots Program that distributes locally grown organic produce to area food banks and shelters.
You can read the Inlander’s tribute to Bart and his work here:
An excerpt:
Through the Down to Earth blog and radio show, Mihailovich says he made valuable connections with people — many of whom were sitting around the massive table in the Community Building’s colorful conference room the day he interviewed for the Riverkeeper position. One of those people was attorney Rick Eichstaedt, who had become the first Spokane Riverkeeper in 2009.
Together, and with the help of other local community groups, the two have made huge strides in the local scene. They worked with Rep. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, to usher in the ban on phosphorous lawn chemicals and watched as several education programs popped up in local schools to provide kids with an in-depth education on the region’s water systems.
“Let’s grow this institutional knowledge in Spokane, let’s really get kids focusing on issues that affect and impact them locally, and maybe that would help solve some of Spokane’s problems of people that move away from here,” says Mihailovich. “Maybe if people had more of an emotional attachment to this place, then they would stick around and want to fight for it.”
