President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Buckle
Search every verified Dennis Nelson interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. On December 5, 2012, Dennis Nelson accepted the U.S. Water Prize at the Clean Water America Alliance Award Ceremony. In his remarks, Nelson thanked the sponsors and the organization, and acknowledged the chair of the Project W Foundation board, Heidi Paul, Nicole Ritter Lo from the international program, and his wife, Cindy Nelson. He described Project W as a program that began in North Dakota and expanded to every U.S. state and 66 countries, working with various organizations. Nelson stated that the program's core belief is that water resources management is essential for future economic and social stability in a healthy environment, a belief he said the foundation has held for 30 years. He described the program's model as bringing the scientific management community together with educators, and said the challenge is to make complicated water topics understandable for educators to use in classrooms, businesses, and with others. Nelson emphasized that the program treats all children as water users with respect, and highlighted an activity called "841" that represents one source of water, eight water users, and four needs: the right amount, right time, right quality, and right cost. He thanked federal agencies, noting that the origins of Project W came from those agencies.
“I'd like to thank the sponsors and the organization. I'd like to have a few people in the audience stand up: the chair of the Project W Foundation board Heidi Paul, Nicole Ritter Lo from our international program, and my accompanying person, my wife Cindy Nelson.”
“We believe in water education for teachers — it's the broadest perspective. We look at all children as water users and we treat them with huge respect.”
“We really take seriously that water resources management is essential for future economic and social stability in a healthy environment; we've had that core belief for 30 years and it's sustainability.”
“The big challenge is how do we take these unbelievably complicated topics of water and bring them into a realm that is understandable to educators so that they can use them in classrooms, in their businesses and with others.”
“Our model has been based on bringing the scientific management community together with educators.”
“One water — our world has one water, but it's very different in all different places. The bucket in the middle represents your source of water — groundwater, surface water, rainwater — and all these strings connected to it are connected to children.”
“Four needs: the right amount, the right time, the right quality, the right cost — everyone needs that and that source of water requires infrastructure and investment.”
“If we want every little one we reach in a program to understand that they can make a difference in the world through awareness, knowledge and education.”
“We started in North Dakota; the program expanded to every state in the country and now we're in 66 countries working with just about every kind of organization that you can think of.”
“One of our themes is how do we get all these different types of interests to work together, and I want to thank the federal agencies that were here — the origins of Project W come from your agencies.”
At the Clean Water America Alliance Award Ceremony.
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