Visalia Resident Receives National Sierra Club Award

SAN FRANCISCO – Sept. 23, 2000 – Visalia resident Harold Wood was among those receiving national awards from the Sierra Club this year.

Wood received a Special Achievement Award from the organization for his development of the John Muir Exhibit, a web site devoted to the life and legacy of Sierra Club founder John Muir.

The 1,000-page web site includes everything from a detailed chronology of Muir’s life to updated reports of events pertaining to Muir around the world. Interactive features of the site include sound and music clips, a John Muir Discussion Mailing List for Muir scholars, a guestbook and a message board.

"These resources have proven invaluable to students from kindergarten through graduate school, as well as editors and publishers of newspapers, magazines and books," said Glenn Shellcross, chair of the Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club.

The John Muir Exhibit has already received numerous other awards, including Link of the Week from Computer Currents Interactive, a Four-star Overall Rating from CyberHound Online, a Four-star rating from Magellan, a Top 5% Web site from Point Review, Best of the Net from WebCrawler Select, a Better Place Award from The Internet Filter, Site of the Week from the Environmental News Network, the Study Web Academic Excellence Award and an "Awesome" rating from the Schools of California Online Resources for Education.

Wood currently serves as chair of the Sierra Club’s Mineral King Group and chair of its Environmental Education Committee. He also serves as webmaster for the Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club.

The Sierra Club, which was founded in 1892 by John Muir, is the country’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization. It currently has more than 600,000 members. The John Muir Exhibit can be found on the Web at www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/.