1. Media Contact: Lynn E. Broaddus
Lbroaddus@broadviewcollaborative.com
414-559-5495
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Finley’s Green Wish Continues to Grow
Broad Run, Virginia, USA (21 April 2015) – In honor of Earth Day, Finley’s ‘Green
Leap Forward’ Fund announces its second annual grants. The Fund was established in
2014 by Elizabeth Finley Broaddus, a senior at Highland School whose plans to attend
the College of William and Mary to study environmental policy were interrupted by the
news that she had cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and challenging form of cancer. Though
Finley’s fight with cancer ended five months later on June 2, 2014 her impact on global
environmental causes continues to grow.
As she battled the incurable disease, Ms. Broaddus set up Finley’s ‘Green Leap
Forward’ on February 26, 2014 to “support local and global efforts that have a positive
impact on the environment, moving us forward towards a healthy, sustainable planet.”
For her 18th birthday on March 12, 2014 friends and family members set out to raise at
least $18,000 for the fund. Donations surpassed $74,000 by Ms. Broaddus’ birthday
with support from at least 37 states and all continents with the exception of Antarctica.
Since that time, the fund has more than doubled, with total contributions surpassing
$197,000.
In honor of Earth Day 2015, Finley’s ‘Green Leap Forward’ Fund is building on the
personal selections Ms. Broaddus made last year by granting both The Green Belt
Movement and the Cacapon Institute with second-year grants of $5,000 each. Over the
two-year grant cycle, each organization will have received $10,000 from the fund, for a
total of $20,000 in grants from the Fund.
The 2015 grants focus on forest restoration and tree-planting efforts. Finley
intentionally chose a regional and a global effort to support, and selected projects that
make a positive impact on the daily lives of people in the surrounding communities.
Reflecting the global support her fund has received, while honoring the concentration of
donors from the Chesapeake watershed, she selected one international organization and
one regional project. The two grantees, the Green Belt Movement headquartered in
Nairobi, Kenya and the Cacapon Institute based in Great Cacapon, West Virginia USA,
have long-standing programs for tree-planting, community engagement and associated
training.

2. Finley’s leaping image reflects her energy and optimism, inspiring people of all ages.
Upon learning of the 2015 grant to support some of the 30 community tree planting
projects they have scheduled for this year, Frank Rodgers, Executive Director of
Cacapon Institute, said “You have no idea how Finley’s story resonates.”
Tanner Haid, an urban forester with Cacapon Institute, related the story of a second
grade girl who wrote a thank you note. After hearing Finley’s story and planting trees at
her school she went home and begged her parents to plant trees at their own house,
which they did. “Where once these students saw an empty field, they now see a forest,”
related Haid.
Finley’s impact continues to inspire action in unexpected ways. Last June Cacapon
Institute staff traveled to Airlie, Virginia to attend Finley’s memorial service. While
standing in line to pay their respects to the family, they struck up a conversation with
the people behind them. Those people happened to be Kim and Jim Stutzman, owners
of Jim Stutzman Chevrolet-Cadillac in Winchester, Virginia who followed up on the
conversation with the loan of a 15-person van for the Institute’s 2015 Stream Scholars
Summer Camp.
In addition to regional and global action, Finley also asked that people take individual
action by planting trees in their own communities. This action resulted in “Finley’s
Forest” a virtual grove of trees planted around the world which can be viewed at
(http://www.finleysgreenleapforward.org/project/personal-finleys-forest/)
# # #
Finley’s ‘Green Leap Forward’ Fund was created in 2014 by Ms. Elizabeth Finley
Broaddus to support environmental protection and restoration, and is managed by the
Northern Piedmont Community Foundation, Culpepper VA. More information on the
fund and its activities may be found at: http://www.finleysgreenleapforward.org/ and
https://www.facebook.com/FinleysGreenLeapForward. Donations to the fund may be
made through the donation tab found at www.NPCF.org with designation for “Finley’s
Fund”.
The Cacapon Institute protects rivers and watersheds from the Cacapon River to the
Potomac to the Chesapeake Bay using science and education. The Cacapon River is a
beautiful and scenic river known for its outstanding fishing, boating, wildlife, and
scenery. The Cacapon gets its name from a Native American word meaning "healing
waters". As part of the Potomac River watershed, it is an American Heritage River.
Expanding tree canopy in riparian and urban areas is a core part of the Institute’s
mission and work. Contact: Frank Rodgers, 304-240-2721 (c),
FRodgers@CacaponInstitute.org.

3. The Green Belt Movement (GBM) empowers communities, particularly women, to
conserve the environment and improve livelihoods. GBM was founded by the late
Professor Wangari Maathai in 1977 under the auspices of the National Council of
Women of Kenya (NCWK) to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women who reported
that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to
walk further and further to get firewood for fuel and fencing. GBM encouraged the
women to work together to grow seedlings and plant trees to bind the soil, store
rainwater, provide food and firewood, and receive a small monetary token for their
work.