Press conference and tree planting ceremony at UC Berkeley |
|
28 April 2004 ATTENTION: City desks, assignment editors, sports reporters |
Contact:
Media Relations
|
WHAT
A press conference and tree-planting ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley, that will be one of many held worldwide on Friday to launch the Olympic Year Global Olive Wreath project. Led by the non-profit Athens Environmental Foundation, the project is spreading the Olympic spirit, honoring the homecoming of the Olympics this year to Greece, and planting olive trees on every continent to form a symbolic wreath on earth.
In ancient Greece, winners of athletic competitions in Olympia were given an olive wreath as a symbol of victory, peace and prosperity. The olive wreath also is the official symbol of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
WHEN
11 a.m.-noon, Friday, April 30
WHERE
Edwards Stadium/Goldman Field, on the west side of campus. From Oxford Street, turn onto Frank Schlessinger Way. Enter the gate that is the entrance to the Hellman Tennis Courts and leads to the field.
WHO
Among the participants will be:
* Tony Diamantidis, executive director of the Athens Environmental Foundation
* Chris Huffins, UC Berkeley director of track and field and a Bronze Medalist in the decathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney
* Jennifer Joyce, a UC Berkeley assistant track and field coach and an Olympic hopeful in the hammer throw
* Stephen Gladstone, director of UC Berkeley athletics and recreational sports
* Stephen Miller, leader of UC Berkeley's excavation of an ancient Greek athletic site and professor of classics
DETAILS
The Athens Environmental Foundation organizes, supports and promotes global programs for sport and environmental responsibility that are associated with the Olympic Games. Another of its projects is a coastal cleanup of the Olympic perimeter of Athens prior to the Olympics.
On Friday, schools in some 50 countries worldwide, and in nearly every state in the United States, will plant olive trees as part of the Global Olive Wreath project.
###
NOTE: For information about the Athens Environmental Foundation, call (510) 594-1000, (510) 851-2020 or see www.athensenvironmental.org.