Statement Announcing Establishment of the President's Environmental Merit Awards Program for High School Students

NEVER have the Nation's young people responded so enthusiastically as today to the challenges and needs of our society. In particular, I have been impressed by the thousands of letters I have received from young people who want to join our national effort to reclaim, protect, and preserve our natural inheritance. Environmental programs sponsored by high school students can play an important part in this vital effort.

To help encourage such programs, and to give deserved recognition to the achievements of those who participate, I have initiated the President's Environmental Merit Awards Program. Through it, America will have a chance to say "thank you" to the hard-working young people who give their time and their energy to the great goal of a better environment for everyone.

We have purposely made the program flexible so that every student will be encouraged to participate and so that those who do will receive recognition for their constructive and responsible contributions. The program will be administered locally--assuring that the efforts of our young people will be relevant to individual community needs and special problems. It is my sincere hope that every high school principal in America will share enthusiastically in the program in the same fine spirit of its theme: "Life--pass it on."