Boulder, C.O,Press Release) – Jordan Phillips, age 17, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, has been named an honoree of the 2021 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. Each year, the Barron Prize celebrates 25 inspiring young leaders – fifteen top winners and ten honorees – who have made a significant positive impact on people, their communities, and the environment. This year’s Barron Prize honorees are an outstanding group of young heroes chosen from more than 700 applicants across the U.S. and Canada.

Jordan sews and sells coffee cup sleeves through her Cozys for the Cure initiative to help fund breast cancer treatment and research. She has donated more than $120,000 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to support mobile mammogram units in southeastern Ohio, the area of Appalachia where Jordan was born and that carries the highest breast cancer death rate in the country. She began her work at age 11 as a way to support her mom when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. An avid sewer, Jordan crafted a few dozen fabric coffee cup sleeves and posted about them on her mom’s Facebook page. Within a year, she had raised $6,000. Soon after, Walmart carried her Cozys as a seasonal product in 1,600 stores and sold more than 200,000 of them, donating part of the proceeds to Susan G. Komen. During the pandemic, Jordan temporarily shifted her focus to make more than 1,000 masks for frontline workers in her community. “Cozys for the Cure has taught me that my passion and purpose lie in helping others,” says Jordan. “I’m excited to continue this project for years to come and to focus my career on leading companies that address social problems and create change.”

The Barron Prize was founded in 2001 by author T. A. Barron and named for his mother, Gloria Barron. Since then, the Prize has honored more than 500 young people who reflect the great diversity of America. All of them demonstrate heroic qualities like courage, compassion, and perseverance as they work to help their communities or protect the planet.

“Nothing is more inspiring than stories about heroic people who have truly made a difference to the world,” says T. A. Barron. “And we need our heroes today more than ever. Not celebrities, but heroes – people whose character can inspire us all. That is the purpose of the Barron Prize: to shine the spotlight on these amazing young people so that their stories will inspire others.”