10 people who make the world a better place: AARP The Magazine announces winners of Its 2007 Impact Awards

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for Americans ages 50- plus, with nearly 30 million readers, today announced the winners of the 2007 Impact Awards. The awards pay tribute to 10 extraordinary people who have made the world a better place through their innovative thinking, passion and perseverance.

The honorees will receive their awards at a private luncheon held at the New York Public Library on Dec. 18 and are profiled in the January/February 2007 issue of AARP The Magazine and at http://www.aarpmagazine.org.

"The Impact Awards spotlight the power individuals have to change the world," says Steve Slon, the magazine's editor. "As an organization devoted to making life better for all Americans, AARP is proud to honor these 10 remarkable people who prove you can make a difference at any age."

The 2007 Impact Award Winners:

-- Robert De Niro: Champion of Livable Communities

Academy Award-winning actor and director Robert De Niro was in Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and watched as the World Trade Center Twin Towers collapsed. For the native New Yorker, the terrorist attacks devastated not only his country but the community he loved. To help rebuild downtown New York City, De Niro co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival, which has pumped $325 million into the local economy and helped the Tribeca neighborhood regain it's sense of community. In 2006, the festival attracted 465,000 people to see over 800 screenings of films from 40 countries.

-- David Hyde Pierce: Alzheimer's Association Spokesperson

Emmy Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce's commitment to his role as spokesperson for the Alzheimer's Association is personal. Alzheimer's claimed the lives of his father and grandfather and was a factor in the deaths of his mother and grandmother. Since 1994, Pierce, best known as Niles Crane on "Frasier," has tirelessly toured the country raising money for research, testifying before Congress and loaning his celebrity name to raise awareness of the disease that afflicts 4.5 million Americans.

-- Jim Larranaga: Model Coach for Healthy Behaviors

In one of the most exhilarating NCAA Tournament runs in hoops history, Coach Jim Larranaga's George Mason Patriots, a group of overachieving underdogs, did more than beat the March Madness odds: they became America's team, beating three former national champions in a little over a week to make it to the Final Four. In a game often taken too seriously, Larranaga asked just one thing of his players: Have fun.

-- Valerie Harper: World Hunger Fighter

Since 1977, Valerie Harper, best known for her Emmy Award-winning turn as Mary Tyler Moore's sassy sidekick Rhoda, has channeled much of her prodigious energy into The Hunger Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating hunger, in part by empowering women. The Hunger Project, which has aided some 2.5 million people in 13 developing countries in Africa, South Asia and Latin America, provides women with loans for businesses and farms, promotes girls' education and helps build food banks and health clinics.

-- Marlo Thomas: Fundraiser for Children's Health Research

In 1991, after the death of her father Danny Thomas, Emmy Award-winning actress Marlo Thomas planned to carry on his work at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital just long enough to see the facility through the transition. But it didn't take long for Thomas to embrace the same calling that had inspired her father to establish the Memphis-based hospital in 1962. Today, she works tirelessly as national outreach director for St. Jude -- working to raise money and awareness to support cutting-edge research and treatment of pediatric cancers and other diseases.

-- Gov. Jim Douglas: Health Care Reformer

As a Republican governor faced with a solidly Democratic legislature, Gov. Jim Douglas could have succumbed to the inevitable gridlock that often mires tough issues. But in May, after two years of negotiations, Douglas signed the most progressive health care law in the country, making affordable health insurance available to everyone in the state of Vermont.

-- Cordelia Taylor: Nursing Home Pioneer

A nurse and administrator at a nursing home in Milwaukee, Cordelia Taylor wasn't satisfied with the way her patients lived. So, she quit her job, sold her house and renovated a home in a decaying neighborhood for eight elderly residents. She soon bought nearby vacant houses and transformed a troubled block into an innovative long-term care complex called Family House. Now the block functions as a force for community revitalization, providing people who need long-term care a home environment, employing area residents and offering after-school programs. A medical clinic has been added, and next on Taylor's to do list is a community center.

-- Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D.: Advocate for Math and Science Education

After the Soviet Union's success with Sputnik, American schools were prompted to emphasize math and science, subjects that captured the imagination of Shirley Ann Jackson. After graduating as high-school valedictorian, Jackson became the first African- American woman to earn a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today, as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Jackson is campaigning for a renewed focus on math and science education in America. With many U.S. scientists and engineers retiring, Jackson is using her voice and industry clout to urge more teachers to go into the math and science fields, especially women and minorities.

-- Elouise Cobell: Advocate for Financial Security for Native Americans

Growing up on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana, Elouise Cobell was concerned that the government checks sometimes came -- and sometimes didn't. The government leased Indian lands to oil, timber and mining companies, but the money rarely made it back to the Native Americans. In 1987, Cobell helped found the country's first tribal-owned national bank, today called the Native American National Bank. Cobell is now taking on the Department of the Interior on behalf of all Native Americans, charging that the government has massively defrauded Native Americans of revenues from leased Indian lands since the 19th century.

-- Jack McConnell, MD: Health Provider for Low- Income Patients

A renowned physician and researcher, Jack McConnell proved to be a terrible retiree. McConnell, whose achievements include directing the development of the tuberculosis tine test, Tylenol tablets and MRI technology, noticed that a number of low-income residents in Hilton Head, S.C., had no health care. So he started a free medical clinic to serve them, enticing recently retired physicians and nurses back to work to help out. Now, the Volunteers in Medicine Institute is using McConnell's model to build free clinics nationwide, with 50 clinics up and running so far.

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AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50-plus have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole. It produces AARP The Magazine, published bimonthly; AARP Bulletin, a monthly newspaper; AARP Segunda Juventud, its bimonthly magazine in Spanish and English; NRTA Live & Learn, a quarterly newsletter for 50-plus educators; and its Web site, http://www.aarp.org. AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors and sponsors. AARP has staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.