Captain Planet Foundation celebrates 30 years of global impact
ATLANTA - Oscar-winner Jane Fonda, White House advisor Jerome Foster II, and television star Bill Nye will be honored as "environmental heroes" this weekend in Atlanta as the Captain Planet Foundation hosts its 30th anniversary gala Saturday evening.
Launched in 1991, the foundation was co-created by media mogul Ted Turner and "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" executive producer Barbara Pyle as a way to take lessons from the popular animated series and translate them to real world results.
"We have made grants to educators, both formal and informal, in 90 countries. We have directly funded and engaged 1.6 million youth in hands-on environmental projects and impacted — like through our 2,000 school gardens — over 10 million youth, when you consider all the youth that our programs touched along the way," board chairperson Laura Turner Seydel said.
The foundation also recently launched a new global program called the Planeteer Alliance as a way to help young people take on environmental issues around the world.
"We launched the Planeteer Alliance to be broader in the issues covered," Seydel said. "So, obviously, climate, fresh water issues, habitat and biodiversity loss, food justice. And so we really expect our impact and engagement with youth all over the world to grow in scale."
Viewers from around the world can tune in to a livestream of the 30th anniversary gala, starting at 7 p.m. Saturday. Click here for more information.