Grantee Profile—2006 Grant Recipient

A 2006 AFFW Grantee Is Received At The White House

AFFW recently received a thank you for our support from the Simpson Street Free Press, a newspaper written and produced by youth in Madison, Wisconsin. It is being recognized as one of the Nation’s best youth programs. The organization will receive the prestigious 2008 Coming Up Taller Award. Representatives of the newspaper Deidre Green (a 2008 AFFW Fabulous First) and SiSi Chen traveled to Washington D.C. where they accepted the award on November 14 at a White House reception with the First Lady.

Coming Up Taller is an initiative of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The program is intended to identify and support America's best and most innovative youth programs.

Coming Up Taller Awards recognize outstanding community-based arts and humanities programs around the county. "These programs celebrate the creativity of America's young people, and provide them with new learning opportunities and a chance to contribute to their communities." More than 350 nominations were received in 2008.

Recently the Simpson Street Free Press has won two other prestigious awards. The University of Wisconsin System recognized the paper for its "highly effective and innovative efforts to promote science learning." In addition, 17 year old Deidre Green was recently awarded the prestigious Wisconsin School Bell Award for journalism for her popular opinion column. "The Gap According to Green."