Teen Donated $4,400 to Open Spaces

Jake Luria this month will become the youngest ever to receive the Quality of Life Commission’s Green Award.

He’ll get it because, at age 13, he motivated friends and family to send $2,500 of his bar mitzvah gifts to the town’s Open Space Committee, and $1,900 to the Marin County Department of Parks and Open Space.

The local contributions were earmarked for the potential purchase of Bald Hill, and the county gift may help buy a tract near the Gary Giacomini Preserve that runs along the San Geronimo Ridge.

Both locations are near where Luria lives.

The award, unanimously voted by the commission at a recent meeting, will be presented at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 13 at the San Anselmo Town Council session.

Luria, who has now turned 14, hopes his action will cause others to follow suit.

Noting that youths of all faiths may get monetary gifts at coming-of-age and other ceremonies, he suggests they “give to whatever charity or organization means a lot to them, particularly if they’re fortunate enough so they can.”

The teenager has long been sensitive to green issues. He suspects that’s because “my room looks right onto open space, and I can see the wildlife there and in the hills — lots of deer and squirrels, bobcats, raccoons and foxes, and I can hear coyotes when I’m going to bed.”

Jonathan Braun, open-space committee chair, originally had told Luria about a grassroots campaign “to save Bald Hill.” Braun, an earlier Quality of Life Commission Green Award winner, is a neighbor with whom the youth has hiked.

Proclaims the teen, “It just wouldn’t be the same if Bald Hill were covered with houses.”

It didn’t hurt, he says, that his parents “taught me to be respectful of wildlife, trees and environmental stuff.”

His mom, Karen Behnke Luria, admits she and her husband, Howard, “are all about open space. We tend to be outside, not at the computer or TV or being couch potatoes. Hopefully we try to set an example but not do that hyper-pushy thing.”

She also credits St. Mark’s School, where her son is an eighth-grader, for “recycling and organizing other environmentally sensitive projects.”

But the youth’s decision to donate his bar mitzvah gifts, she insists, “was completely driven by him. He’s a giving, nice, smart, wonderful boy who’s self-motivated and comes up with his own ideas.”

His dad, who’s proud “Jake did what he did after picking up our love of the outdoors and environmental concerns,” recalls that when “it was time for him to choose a science fair project in the sixth grade, he chose trees and branches and how quickly they can burn” — with an eye toward protecting them.

The award-winner, meanwhile, traces his eco-friendliness to when his folks would “push me uphill in a stroller while they were running.”

The Lurias obviously put their money where their mouths are.

They’ve installed solar panels on their house and Howard drives an electric vehicle. Jake’s parents contribute to Conservation International and other organizations, including the Breast Cancer Fund, which focuses on environmental causes of the disease.

Jake, an avid hiker and biker (“like my parents,” he emphasizes), is also an individualist.

His bar mitzvah, for example, wasn’t held at a synagogue but at a sailing club in Tiburon. “Sometimes on holidays we go to Rodef Sholom in San Rafael, but I’m not terribly religious,” he says.

But he is, clearly, extremely green.

Jake Luria will become the 22nd winner of the Green Award, which is aimed at “unsung heroes” who have benefited San Anselmo environmentally without expectations of reward or recognition.

Earlier citations were given Anna Frost, , , , Dick Miner, , , the team of Steve Reinertsen and Scott Weeks, Sita Khufu, Rohana McLaughlin, , Larry Nilsen, Matt Eakle, Ted Bakkila, Christine Dietrich Cragg, Bob Mellin, H.G. Von Dallwitz, Denali Gillaspie, Jonathan Braun, Dan Goltz and the husband-wife team of Janet Byrum and Bob Fleming.

Nominations can be hand-delivered or mailed to:

Quality of Life Commission, c/o Town of San Anselmo, 525 San Anselmo Ave., or e-mailed to voodee@sbcglobal.net or  townclerk@ci.san-anselmo.ca.us.