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Jackson honored for selfless work
An Albany woman's community work gets her noticed by the big folks in Washington,
D.C.
Barbara Rivera Holmes
ALBANY — Pamela Green-Jackson has been awarded this and that and had her praises
sung by some of the community's most influential residents.
And still, Jackson's focus has not shifted. While awards are certainly an honor,
she said, they are not what she thrives on.
"My job is to make a difference," said Jackson, 40, founder of The YBH (Youth
Becoming Healthy) Project, a program which targets childhood obesity by educating
middle school students about food and exercise.
For her work with YBH and with Georgia On the Move, which she is state coordinator
of, Jackson was presented with the Congressional Black Caucus Spouses Unsung
Hero Award. Eight others from across the nation received the award, in September
in Washington, D.C.
"I got to meet some exciting people that I had been wanting to talk to for a
long time," she said of the event, which took place on Sept. 19, one day before
her 40th birthday. "I think it opened up a lot of doors."
"Pamela Jackson ... is truly an inspiration to each and everyone of us," U.S.
Congressman Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, declared in a statement. "Many people talk
about making a difference; Pamela Green-Jackson is making a difference."
Also, Jackson is featured as one of "Georgia's 40 under 40: The Best and the
Brightest" in the October issue of Georgia Trend, a statewide business and politics
magazine.
"That was quite an honor," Jackson gushed, "because I read the magazine every
month.
"And to know that someone thought enough of me and the work that I (am trying)
to do" is great, she said.
But back to her humble motivations.
"The whole reason is to, one, honor my brother; and two, not have children suffer
the same way he did from obesity," she affirmed. Jackson's only brother, Bernard,
was obese throughout his life, and died in 2004 from a heart attack.
The first YBH exercise center at Dougherty Middle School opened on Feb. 13, 2004,
just three days after her brother's sudden death.
"The fact that I'm helping someone, the fact that I'm making a difference in
someone's life" is reward enough, she said. "It honors my brother and it honors
God, who I believe chose me to do this kind of work."
Jackson is the former director of Newspapers in Knowledge, the nonprofit arm
of The Albany Herald.
Jackson, an Albany resident but Baker County native, is a busy mother of three
teenagers, whom she raises with her husband, Larry.
She is a graduate of LaGrange College and Albany State University, and just this
week began graduate school at Troy State University.
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