NEW YORK, N.Y. – The National Child Labor Committee has announced that Marilyn Isaacson Simonds of Auburn, Maine, received its Lewis Hine Award on Jan. 30.

Simonds, volunteer board member at Androscoggin Head Start and Child Care, was honored for her lifetime of advocacy on behalf of needy and in-crisis children and their families.

In 1975, Simonds helped found an early childhood program for special needs children, which is now Pathways Inc., a community-based program that services developmentally disabled individuals with programs ranging from preschool through adult employment.

She taught at Androscoggin Head Start and Child Care for almost 20 years. She has mentored teenage girls from a residential juvenile detention center as well as worked as a co-facilitator for a children’s support group at an abused women’s shelter.

Simonds serves as a board member for BOOKREACH, an early childhood literacy program for preschoolers, and has been actively involved with the program for the past nine years.

Simonds is one of 12 men and women, volunteers and professionals, selected from hundreds of submissions from across the nation. Each recipient received a $1,000 prize and a trip to the awards ceremony.

A panel of judges from corporations, nonprofits and foundations selected award recipients from hundreds of nominations submitted by governors, mayors, CEOs and nonprofit leaders from across the country.

Named for photographer Lewis Wickes Hine, the awards were established by the committee in 1985.

For more information about awards and the committee, e-mail nclc05hine@aol.com or call 212-840-1801, ext. 23.

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