10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania bestowed its prestigious Commonwealth Award on a state representative who advocated for Pennsylvania’s “Elm Street” program and the CEO of a Harrisburg non-profit that has contributed greatly to the capital city’s growth.

The Commonwealth Award for Contribution by a Public Official will go to Pennsylvania Representative Robert Freeman, D-Easton. Freeman wrote and sponsored the legislation that established Pennsylvania’s “Elm Street” project to revitalize existing neighborhoods and compliment the “Main Street” program that assists older commercial districts. Freeman is also being honored for his 20 year-plus legislative career as a strong advocate of “Smart Growth” policies.                                       
The president and CEO of the Harristown Development Corporation, Russell C. Ford, will receive the Commonwealth Award for Contribution by a Citizen for his contributions to the development of downtown Harrisburg, as evidenced by numerous new and rehabilitated structures, including the Strawberry Square office tower, the Harrisburg Hilton, the Harrisburg Transportation Center and the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts. Ford, a former city planner, is being honored for his visionary leadership.       

“Russell Ford and Bob Freeman typify the leadership qualities of public officials and individual citizens that are truly making a difference in the quality of life in communities throughout the  commonwealth”, said Judy Schwank, President of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania. She added that “These visionary leaders, through their personal commitment to smart growth principles, have positively impacted the lives of countless citizens.”

Schwank took note that “All of the individual winners hail from rapidly growing areas of the commonwealth and their work reflects an understanding of the need to reinvest in core communities like Harrisburg or Easton making them more attractive to longtime as well as new residents.”

In addition to selecting Freeman and Ford for the Commonwealth Awards, a five-member panel of the 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania board of directors also recognized two others with special jury presentations:

• Becky Bradley, the director of planning for the City of Easton, who is being honored as a public official for a revision of the city’s zoning and development ordinances. The new ordinances, developed after a two-year task force led by Bradley, rejects suburban-style development and promotes walkable neighborhoods, mixed use of properties and economic growth.                                   
• Christopher Bennick, the CEO of Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley, is being recognized as a citizen for his leadership in acquiring $3 million to purchase 17 acres near the top of South Mountain in Bethlehem. On that site, 27 single homes were constructed at half the market cost thanks to volunteer labor and donated or discounted building materials. In addition, 12 of the 17 acres consisting of wildlife and woods were preserved as open space in the development.

Keynote speaker for the awards ceremony at the Whitaker Center was Christopher B. Leinberger, an expert on land use strategy and development whose multi-layered career includes experience as a business executive, professor and author. He is a frequent nationwide speaker, author of magazine articles, book chapters and books and currently he is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. Leinberger has an international reputation as a promoter of transforming both urban and suburban downtowns into examples of “walkable urbanism.”