Contact:
Kimberli Meadows, Points of Light Foundation
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KMeadows@pointsoflight.org

PHILLIP STEVENS HONORED FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN VOLUNTEER SERVICE

Award presented by Points of Light Foundation & Volunteer Center National Network

Kansas City, Missouri (June 7, 2004) - Phillip J. Stevens, entrepreneur, business executive, and advocate for American Indians, is the recipient of the Lenore and George W. Romney Citizen Volunteer Award from the Points of Light Foundation & Volunteer Center National Network. The national award was presented on Monday, June 7, during the 2004 National Conference on Community Volunteering and National Service.

The Lenore and George W. Romney Citizen Volunteer Award honors distinguished Americans who have built and sustained a lifetime of volunteerism and citizenship. The great grandson of Standing Bear, a Sioux warrior who fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Stevens dedicated his life to helping American Indian businessmen in the areas of business development and management, as well as providing them with humanitarian aid in the form of clothing, food and educational support. His advocacy for Native Americans is widely known throughout the Indian community. In 1988, 33 chiefs and leaders of the Great Sioux Nation appointed him to a position unprecedented in the history of the Sioux nation - that of Special Chief of the Great Sioux Nation.

An expert in rocket engine design and an inventor who holds patents in the field of rocket propulsion, Stevens felt that such a high honor was worthy of a full-time commitment to the needs of the Sioux people. Stevens decided to sell his company, a very successful and profitable corporation to which he had devoted 19 years of his life, and in 1986, formed a charitable, nonprofit organization called the Walking Shield American Indian Society.

He served there on a voluntary basis for the next 17 years, working to improve the quality of life for those American Indians living on the nation's Indian reservations. During his 34 years of service to the American Indian population, Stevens has arranged for more than 60,000 sick and needy American Indians to obtain much-needed medical and health care, provided more than 900 housing units to more than 5,000 homeless and needy American Indians, and led the development of new communities on Indian reservations in six states.

The Lenore and George W. Romney Citizen Volunteer Award was established in 1987 and presented to Governor Romney that year. The award is given by the Points of Light Foundation & Volunteer Center National Network to those distinguished Americans who have demonstrated the same spirit of volunteering and citizenship that characterized the lives of the late Lenore and George Romney. Mrs. Romney served as chair of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and was named Church Woman of the Year. George Romney was one of the few modern Americans who distinguished himself in all three sectors of society - in business, in government and as a volunteer.

Past recipients of the award include Eunice and Sargent Shriver, Dr. Dorothy Height, James and Sara Brady, Bob Hope, Harry Belafonte, Gen. Colin Powell, Millard Fuller, the George and Olive Osmond Family, and Raymond Chambers.