First Annual Jane Pratt Blue Ridge Mountains Education Award

Peter Weeks, FBRM Board member; Liam McGranaghan, LVHS Teacher of Environmental Studies; Christina Nelson, recipient; Jed Shilling, FBRM Board member. photo credit: Joyce Gates

On Thursday, May 29 at Loudoun Valley High School’s “Evening of Honors” Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains presented the first annual “Jane Pratt Blue Ridge Mountains Education Award.”

The honored recipient was LVHS senior Christina Nelson of Purcellville. Christina is an A + student in environmental science. She is president of Loudoun Valley’s Environmental Club and has helped coordinate activities such as trail maintenance, bluebird monitoring and bluebird box repair and creating environmental movie night. Christina is also an accomplished artist and has created many works about animals. She won the state Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Key award for painting of running Zebra. She has received the Loudoun Valley Roger Tory Peterson award for her excellence in field notebook journaling. She also won the NATGEN’s 2013 poster award on the topic of water quality. Christina has been accepted to Virginia Tech where she will major in Wildlife Science with a possible double major in art. Her hope is to become an environmental science teacher.

Jed Shilling, husband of the late Jane Pratt and a Board member of Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains, presented the award to Christina. Read Jed Shillings Award Presentation remarks.