Remarks at 2007 Earth Day International Art Contest Awards Ceremony

I'm delighted to welcome you all here today, the daughters and sons of employees of the Department. I'm also pleased to welcome our special guests here today. Today is a very special day. Children of State Department parents will get to see where their mothers and fathers work and why what they do is so important for our country. We have a great program of special activities planned for you throughout the day.

Some of you will exchange information through the wonders of digital video conferencing with children of our diplomats and locally employed staff in El Salvador, in Honduras or Turkey. Others will learn why it is important for our embassies to take specific security measures and others will visit the air chiller equipment for this building, which is something that becomes very, very important in the upcoming weeks. And others will taste African food while learning more about the diverse culture of that wonderful continent which I had the opportunity to visit last week when I took a trip through four different African countries.

All of you, after I swear you in as honorary employees for a day of the United States Department of State we’ll witness, this morning, a great example of what we do here at the State Department. The work your parents do here is important, challenging, and builds goodwill with people across the globe to help make the world a better place for all citizens.

Now it is my pleasure, before proceeding any further, to swear you in as honorary employees for a day of the United States State Department. A copy of that oath is printed on green paper and is in your folder, so I would ask all those taking the oath, all our employees for a day to-be, to please stand up. There you go. And with the oath in hand, please repeat after me.

(The oath was administered.)

DEPUTY SECRETARY NEGROPONTE: Thank you. Congratulations. (Applause.) Now that you are honorary employees, we can begin. We want to start your day by giving you the opportunity to see a very special event on my schedule, an announcement that we have invited the press to attend. It's an event that involves all of our embassies and children just like you from all around the world. This past Sunday, we celebrated Earth Day here in America. Many people may not know this, but I was formerly the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment, and Science here at the State Department, so environmental issues have been and continue to be very important to me.

You all know that a healthy environment is important and affects your life and the lives of children just like you every single day. Ever since we celebrated the first Earth Day here 37 years ago, the United States has been at the forefront of environmental protection both here at home and around the world. To celebrate Earth Day 2007 and to bring attention to what the United States and our partners around the globe are doing to protect the environment, the State Department held an international contest and the theme of the art contest was "What The Environment Means To Me."

Thousands of children from more than 40 countries participated in the contest. Our embassy in each country picked a national winner from each of the three age groups and a panel of judges here at the State Department judged those whose -- those works to determine the three grand prize winners. Those three winners here flew here to Washington yesterday and I am pleased to announce their names now and I would ask each child, as I call their names, to stand up to be recognized.

The first is Soo-Yun Ga from Seoul, Korea. Would you please stand? (Applause.) Anna Kutuzava from Minsk, Belarus. (Applause.) And Mariya Nikolova from Sofia, Bulgaria. (Applause.)

So I want to congratulate all three of you. Your fine works of art, as well as the thousands of other works submitted show not only the tremendous artistic ability, but the importance of the earth to so many children around the world. Your art also reminds us that we can only protect our environment if everyone works together. That includes individuals, governments, and private businesses.

One such private company is here today. Walt Disney World shares in this commitment to the environment and is working to protect wildlife and to educate children and adults alike about nature. So it is my pleasure to ask our Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky to say a few words and to introduce Beth Stevens from Disney's Animal Kingdom.

(Applause.)

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