YOUR AARP
Purpose Prize Winners
AARP honors lives spent helping others
SEVEN older Americans who have made important contributions to building a better world have been named the winners of the AARP Purpose Prize. Each recipient’s organization will receive $50,000. AARP also awarded an honorary Purpose Prize to the actor Taraji P. Henson for her work to address mental health issues in diverse communities.
Here are the winners.
Jennifer Jacobs, 53, Falls Church, Virginia. Intelligence analyst Jacobs created Connect Our Kids, which gives foster care teams advanced technology and tools to find families for children under their care.
Robert Elkin, 65, Dallas. Elkin and fellow volunteers founded March to the Polls, which provides peer-to-peer in-class high school voter education and registration in 10 school districts in the Dallas area.
Gemma M. García, 67, Miami Beach. A moving volunteer experience at a faith-based prison program for women motivated García to cofound the Ladies Empowerment & Action Program, which supports women exiting prison and jail in South Florida.
Calvin Mackie, 57, New Orleans. Mackie, a former engineering professor, founded STEM NOLA to fill the gap in opportunities for high-quality STEM learning experiences for children in underserved communities.
Jim Ansara, 67, Essex, Massachusetts. Ansara’s volunteer work in Haiti inspired him to cofound Build Health International in 2014, which, with local partners, builds high-quality health care facilities around the world.
Renee Fluker, 69, West Bloomfield, Michigan. Fluker founded the Midnight Golf Program, which offers high school seniors a 30-week program that introduces them to the game and to life-changing opportunities.
Jon Eldan, 54, Oakland, California. After Eldan, a lawyer, viewed a documentary about wrongful convictions, he founded After Innocence, which supports people exonerated for crimes nationwide and advocates for legal changes on their behalf.
To find out more visit aarp.org/purposeprize.