Pasricha, center, in India with children to spread the message about the dangers of tobacco. (Photos: Courtesy, Sadhana Pasricha)

Meghan Pasricha, founder and president of The Anti-Tobacco Action Club (ATAC), Hockessin, DE, was among the six young adult winners of Annual National Caring Awards 2004 –– an award given to the most caring young adults in the United States by the Caring Institute.

A freshman undergraduate at Harvard University, Pasricha, along with the other winners, was inducted into the National Hall of Fame for Caring Americans at the Frederick Douglass Museum and Hall of Fame for Caring Americans on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 15, a press release said.

Meghan Pasricha, left, with Val Halamandaris, president and founder of the Caring Institute.

A winner of Presidential Freedom Scholarship 2004, Pasricha was among the AXA Foundation Scholars in 2004. She also won Delaware Governor’s Youth Volunteer Service Award for 2003 and was named International Youth Advocate of the Year 2003-2004.

She also received Jefferson Award for Public Service 2004 –– an award recognizing outstanding community service. She was the youth representative at the 12th World Conference on Tobacco in Helsinki, Finland, in 2003.

Pasricha received the International Youth Advocate of the Year Award from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids 2003, the release said.

She became the only youth leader selected from a national competition in the U.S. for leadership and tobacco control advocacy work performed in Delaware and for launching a tobacco control youth initiative in India, the release added. As an international advocate, Pasricha worked with international health officials, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), political leaders, media and youth leaders to raise awareness about the global health hazards caused by the use of tobacco, the release added.

Among her activities in India are various presentations at schools in cities and villages to nearly 3,000 students and training youth leaders to spread the message about dangers of tobacco. A winner of several essay contests, she has also been writing for various publications.

The Hall of Fame of Caring Americans is an institution dedicated as a permanent memorial to the extraordinary individuals who are selected to receive the Caring Award.

Other Caring Award winners are: Daniel Cayce from Thornton, AR; Brittany Clifford from Scottsdale, AZ; Jhordan Logan from New Castle, IN; Robyn Strumpf from Northridge, CA; and Thea Leopoulos from Little Rock, AR.

(Compiled from a press release

by Nishant Arora)