Attorney General Eric Holder to Participate in Department’s Earth Day Event at Washington D.C.’s Marvin Gaye Park

WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — To honor the Environment and Natural Resources Divisions’ 100th Anniversary, Attorney General Eric Holder will participate in the division’s annual Earth Day clean up and will dedicate a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr., at Washington D.C.’s Marvin Gaye Park on WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2009 at 11:30 A.M. ET.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), originally known as the Lands Division. ENRD will be celebrating this landmark with a number of events throughout the year, the first being the annual Earth Day project. This year ENRD has partnered with the District of Columbia Department of the Environment for the project. As it has over the past several years, ENRD, working with the non-profit Washington Parks and People organization, has purchased and planted hundreds of trees and shrubs and dedicated thousands of man-hours to cleaning up and maintaining the park.

This year the park has asked Attorney General Holder to dedicate a memorial created by a local youth group called Life Pieces to Masterpieces. Life Pieces to Masterpieces is a non-profit, arts-based, comprehensive youth development organization. The group serves boys and young men ages 3 to 21 living in low-income and public housing east of the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C.

The memorial will commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King’s visit to the park in 1961 and a speech he gave nearby the location where ENRD has worked for the last five years.

WHO:

Attorney General Eric Holder

U.S. Senator Richard Durbin

John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division

WHAT:

Earth Day Cleanup and dedication of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

WHEN:

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2009

11:30 A.M. ET

WHERE:

Marvin Gaye Park

4801 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave., NE

Washington, DC

OPEN PRESS

Note: All media must present government-issued photo I.D. (such as a driver’s license) and valid media credentials. Media may begin arriving at 11:00 A.M. ET and cameras must be pre-set by 11:20 P.M. ET. There will be NO audio or lighting equipment. Press inquiries regarding logistics should be directed to the Office of Public Affairs at 202-514-2007.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice