Abowd, Fischer will be honored for efforts today

Karen Abowd and Mary Fischer of Carson City will be honored today at The Atlantis Hotel & Casino, where they receive the Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada’s 2013 Triumphant Awards.

Abowd will receive the environmental leader award for her work with The Greenhouse Project, a nonprofit community greenhouse on Carson High School’s campus that teaches sustainability and new agricultural principles and produces food for the community. Mary Fischer will receive the community service award for her work with Gardeners Reclaiming Our Waysides (G.R.O.W.), a nonprofit she founded in 1997 to beautify area roadways using landscaping and art.

“Honestly, I never considered myself an environmental leader,” Abowd said. “I found a definition that read, ‘environmental leaders are those who look at environmental problems in light of their own experience and moral values, are committed to leveraging their area of expertise to realize sustainable development in their professional and private lives and exercise leadership in fulfilling their social responsibilities.’”

Fischer arrived in Carson City in 1962 with her husband, Al, who was an engineer specializing in roadways. That perspective inspired Fischer to found G.R.O.W. in 1997, as a way to soften some of the anticipated effects once it was decided the bypass would come through Carson City.

Other recipients of this year’s awards include Laura Zander, founder of Jimmy Beans Wool, Financial Literacy; Mercedes de la Garza, AIA, principal, Mercedes de la Garza Architect Studio, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (S.T.E.M.); and Wendy Damonte, evening news anchor at KTVN Channel 2 News, Healthy Living.