SAN FRANCISCO, June 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- KTVU, in partnership with The Trust for Public Land, today launched the San Francisco Bay Area's 5th annual Cox Conserves Heroes program. Nominations are being accepted for volunteers who are creating, preserving or enhancing outdoor spaces. A total of $15,000 will be donated to local environmental nonprofits on behalf of the finalists.

Nominations are accepted through July 22. To nominate a volunteer, visit: ktvu.com/coxconservesheroes.

A judging panel will select three finalists who will then compete through online voting to be named the Bay Area's 2013 Cox Conserves Hero. The winner will receive $10,000 to donate to his or her selected nonprofit beneficiary. The finalists each will receive $2,500 for their nonprofits of choice.

Nominee activities must be performed on a volunteer basis and may not be part of one's paid job.

The Bay Area's Cox Conserves Heroes Timeline:

• Nominations:  June 24 – July 22
• Voting:  Late August
• Winner Announcement: Early October

This is the fifth year the Cox Conserves Heroes program has taken place in the Bay Area. Charlie Bowen, Naftali Moed, Bruce Beyaert y Lennie Roberts are previous recipients of the Bay Area's Cox Conserves Heroes award.  

As either a finalist or winner's nonprofit of choice, the following Bay Area organizations have received financial support from the Cox Conserves Heroes program and on-air promotion from KTVU: Berkeley Path Wanderers Association; Berkeley Partners for Parks; Committee for Green Foothills; Familyhood Connection; Friends of Alameda Wildlife Refuge; Friends of Boeddeker Park; Northern Alameda County Group of the Sierra Club; Oakland Landscape Committee; Phat Beets Produce; Pie Ranch; Quesada Gardens Initiative; San Francisco Bay Trail Project  y la  World Stewardship Institute.

The Cox Conserves Heroes program was created through a partnership between The Trust for Public Land and Cox Enterprises, the parent company of KTVU, to honor everyday volunteers. The program also runs in Arizona, Atlanta, Louisiana, Orange County (Calif.), San Diego, Santa Barbara and Virginia. More than $280,000 has been donated to local nonprofits through the Cox Conserves Heroes program.

Para más información, visita  CoxConservesHeroes.com or find us on Facebook.

Social Media: #CoxConservesHeroes and #CoxConservesHero

About KTVU
KTVU is part of Cox Media Group, an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company that includes the national advertising rep firms of CoxReps. Additionally, CMG owns Cox Target Media, which operates Valpak, one of North America's leading direct marketing companies, and Savings.com, a leading online source for savings. The company's operations currently include 14 broadcast television stations and one local cable channel, 57 radio stations, eight daily newspapers and more than a dozen non-daily publications, and more than 100 digital services. CMG currently operates in more than 20 media markets and reaches approximately 52 million Americans weekly, including more than 30 million TV viewers, more than 4 million print and online newspaper readers, and 14 million radio listeners.

About The Trust for Public Land
Founded in 1972, The Trust for Public Land is the leading nonprofit working to conserve land for people. Operating from more than 30 offices nationwide, The Trust for Public Land has protected more than three million acres from the inner city to the wilderness and helped generate more than $34 billion in public funds for conservation. Nearly ten million people live within a ten-minute walk of a Trust for Public Land park, garden, or natural area, and millions more visit these sites every year. Más información en tpl.org

About Cox Conserves
Launched in 2007 by Chairman Jim Kennedy, Cox Conserves is Cox Enterprises' national sustainability program. Cox Conserves focuses on reducing waste and energy consumption, as well as conserving water. The program engages each of the company's major subsidiaries (Cox Communications, Manheim, Cox Media Group and AutoTrader.com) and encourages Cox Enterprises' 50,000 employees and their families to engage in eco-friendly practices.

SOURCE KTVU