Appalachian Mountain Club Director To Be Honored at White House Tuesday

A Waltham woman who oversees two pilot programs aimed at getting kids involved in outdoor activities will be honored at the White House on Tuesday, March 18.

Pam Hess, the Beacon Hill-based Appalachian Mountain Club’s director of youth engagement who runs the club’s Outdoors Rx pilot programs, will be recognized as a “Champion of Change” at the White House by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, according to an AMC release.

The Outdoors Rx programs, in Waltham and Framingham, were launched last year with MassGeneral Hospital for Children.

In the programs, which have already served more than 1,000 kids, outdoor activity “prescriptions” are given to kids, primarily in underserved communities, and AMC then helps these kids fill their prescriptions with outdoor play parties, scavenger hunts, letterboxing and nature walks.

Hess and others were selected by the White House from hundreds of nominations.

Hess has worked at AMC for 11 years and previously worked at National Wildlife Refuges for a decade. She lives in Waltham with her husband and their two children.