The 2002 Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Award was presented during a dinner and awards ceremony on campus, April 12, to three Cornell University students for their community service work.

The award was established by Cornell alumni Gerald '54 and Margot '55 Robinson and Robert '53 and Helen '55 Appel to recognize and honor students who have had significant involvement in community service by providing support for their projects, which address a community's social needs or problems. Three students are selected annually, and each receives $1,500 to further a community service project that he or she has proposed and initiated. Listed below are this year's recipients, with their hometowns, colleges and majors, and the descriptions of their projects.

Joel Cadbury, graduate student , Albany, N.Y.; College of Arts and Sciences; major: history. Project SAFE (Secured Access For Emergencies) will provide increased protection and care for the elderly and disabled residents of Tompkins County during fire, medical and other emergencies. This is a project of the Varna Volunteer Fire Company (VVFC) and is targeted for residents at high risk and with low income. Working in close cooperation with the Tompkins County Office for the Aging and the Tompkins County Department of Social Services, the VVFC has developed Project SAFE in an effort to identify and assist at-risk residents who live alone and have sought, or have been provided with, emergency alarm devices. When dispatched by the county 911 center, emergency responders usually cannot obtain fast, safe access to such residents to provide emergency care and must use forcible entry to break a window or door (which results in damage and great cost to the victim). Project SAFE will distribute "knox" boxes, at no cost, to every elderly and disabled resident who is currently under the auspices of the Office for the Aging or Department of Social Services in the Varna fire district. The project will be managed by the VVFC, an organization composed entirely of volunteers since 1953 and who are traditionally Cornell faculty members, students and staff, as well as residents of Varna, committed to local public service.

Tamar Melen '02 (December graduate), Ithaca, N.Y.; College of Arts and Sciences; major: biology and society. Student Survivors of Serious Illness (SSSI) is a new student organization founded in 2000 by Melen, a cancer survivor, through the Cornell Public Service Center, to help ease the burden encountered by students who have faced, or are facing, serious or chronic illness. SSSI seeks to create an on-campus network of student survivors in order to provide four main areas of service for its members and the Cornell and greater Ithaca communities: support, information, advocacy and activism. As any survivor knows, the road back from illness is a difficult one -- SSSI's purpose is to help smooth out the bumps so that student survivors can truly enjoy the best four years of their lives.

Joshua Walker , Buffalo, N.Y.; Cornell Law School. Educational Initiatives for Incarcerated Youths was designed to help provide educational opportunities for young adults incarcerated in Tompkins County. In particular, the project involves the development of courses in writing and publication skills that will not only contribute to the intellectual development of young adults, but offer them opportunities to investigate career paths and to prepare them for eventual release and meaningful employment. Walker's work will involve program development and publication assistance as well as teaching. The project is important because the population it serves is largely invisible and because support for such educational and career development programs have been drastically reduced in the past decade.

-30-