GREEN THUMB HONORS FIFTY-TWO OF
NATION'S OUTSTANDING OLDER WORKERS

Contact:

Toni Delacorte, Roger White, or Monika Hill
Green Thumb Communications Dept.: (703) 522-7272

For Immediate Release

Along With National Employ The Older Worker Week, Effort
Recognizes Special Contributions of Older Americans

WASHINGTON, DC, September 25, 2001 - Green Thumb, Inc., the nation's leading provider of mature worker training and employment, announced today that 52 outstanding older workers from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico are being honored throughout the country in September and October. The honorees represent the 2001 winners of Green Thumb's annual national Prime Time Awards Program, which recognizes outstanding older workers and employers. The 4th annual Prime Time Awards Program was scheduled to culminate in a week of activities in Washington, D.C., beginning on September 11, but was cancelled due to the tragic events of that day.

Now in its fourth year, the Prime Time Awards have quickly become the nation's premier older worker recognition event. Green Thumb launched the program in 1998 to highlight the valuable contributions that older workers make in their communities and places of work. Green Thumb President Andrea Wooten says of the importance of honoring older workers: "These awards focus national attention on the fastest-growing segment of our population - a group that exemplifies the positive work ethic, experience, loyalty and dependability so important to the demands of the workplace, and important to the economic health and overall competitiveness of the country."

Award recipients are selected through a collaborative process involving representatives of the public, private, and service sectors, and this year include eight workers in their 90s and 15 in their 80s. These workers represent a broad range and diversity of experiences that include professions such as doctor, dentist, banker, secretary, clerk, florist, mayor, barber, therapist, photographer, professor, jeweler, and deputy sheriff.

"With this week being designated as National Employ the Older Worker Week, we thought it important to continue the process of recognizing older workers," said Wooten. "By doing so, Green Thumb hopes to promote public policies and attitudes that value the experience and skills of older workers and that encourage their continued contribution to society. Through initiatives such as the Prime Time Awards and Experience Works, Green Thumb's staffing service for mature workers, we have put the philosophy of Employ the Older Worker Week into action."

In recent years, Green Thumb has launched innovative services including Experience WorksSM, a staffing service targeted at matching job-ready mature workers with temporary, permanent, and seasonal needs of business; GotITSM, a self-paced online training and certification program that prepares seniors to enter the information technology field; and Geezer.comSM, an e-commerce Web site featuring quality, handcrafted gifts and products made by America's seniors.

Green Thumb, Inc. is a national, nonprofit organization best known as America's leader in the field of older-worker training and employment. Established in 1965, Green Thumb reaches more than 125,000 mature individuals in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. For more information, photos and profiles of all the Outstanding Older Worker winners, visit Green Thumb's Web site at www.greenthumb.org.

For Local information:
New Jersey: Sydelle Norris, Director 1 609 890 2121
From Maryland: 1 800 200 3559
E-mail: Sydelle_Norris@greenthumb.org