ATLANTA, Nov. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Channel 2 WSB-TV y The Trust for Public Land announced John Gordon como Atlanta's 2013 Cox Conserves Hero. Celebrating its 5^th year in Atlanta, Cox Conserves Heroes recognizes volunteers who are creating, preserving or enhancing outdoor spaces.

Held at Channel 2 WSB-TV's studios, the station's leadership team and staff welcomed local volunteers, representatives from environmental nonprofits, the program's previous finalists and winners, as well as leadership from the City of Atlanta, The Trust for Public Land and Cox companies to the announcement event. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed joined WSB-TV's Justin Farmer y Jovita Moore to congratulate the volunteers and announce Gordon as the winner.

As Gordon's nonprofit of choice, Friends of English Avenue will receive $10,000. His volunteer work helps reduce crime, clean up trash and empower residents for sustainable change. He transformed a vacant lot into the English Avenue Community Urban Farm to provide greenspace and access to fresh produce.

Each of the finalists received $2,500 for their nonprofits of choice:

• Imran Battla: West Atlanta Watershed Alliance
• Bill Lide: Park Pride

The finalists were nominated by the public and selected by a judging panel of environmental leaders, including: EarthShare of Georgia's Executive Director Madeline Reamy, Environmental Protection Agency's Sustainable Communities/ Partnerships Lead Camilla Warren, Georgia Environmental Finance Authority's Land Conservation Program Manager Andrew Szwak, Sustainable Atlanta's Executive Director Suzanne Burnes and Sustainability Expert Polly Sattler.

Donna Shearer, Na'Taki Osborne-Jelks, Angel Poventud y Don Wells son Atlanta's previous Cox Conserves Heroes and also served as judges this year.

Financial support from Cox Conserves Heroes has helped build trails, plant trees, provide environmental education, maintain parks, as well as create outdoor classrooms and certified wildlife habitats at area schools throughout Metro Atlanta.

The following Metro Atlanta organizations have received financial support from the Cox Conserves Heroes program: Elachee Nature Science Center, Georgia Organics, Historic Fourth Ward Park Conservancy, Johns Creek Community Wildlife Habitat, Keeping It Wild, Kirkwood Neighbors Organization, Mountain Stewards, Park Pride, R.E.D.E.E.M Community Outreach, Save Georgia's Hemlocks, Sustainable Norcross, Trees Atlantay el West Atlanta Watershed Alliance.

The Cox Conserves Heroes program was created in 2008 through a partnership between The Trust for Public Land y Cox Enterprises, the parent company of WSB-TV, to honor everyday volunteers. The program also runs in Arizona, Louisiana, Orange County (Calif.), San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara (Calif.), Seattle y Virginia. More than $380,000 has been donated to local nonprofits and more than 100 volunteers have been honored through the Cox Conserves Heroes program.

As part of Cox Enterprises, WSB-TV participates in Cox Conserves, the company's national sustainability program. WSB-TV recently joined Atlanta's Better Buildings Challenge and pledged to reduce its facility's energy and water usage by 20 percent by 2020.(INSERT LINK TO RELEASE)

Para más información, visita  CoxConservesHeroes.com or Facebook.com/CoxConservesHeroes.

Social Media: #CoxConservesHeroes and #CoxConservesHero

About Channel 2 WSB-TV
The ABC Affiliate is part of Cox Media Group and ranks as Atlanta's number one local television station. The station also operates its website, wsbtv.com, its mobile site, wap.wsbtv.com, and airs MeTV on its digital channel 2.2.

Cox Media Group is 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. For more information about Cox Media Group, visit www.coxmediagroup.com.   

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 mil millones 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.

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 WSB-TV