In recognition of our commitment to civic involvement, the League of Women Voters of the City of New York awarded Con Edison the 2003 Voting Rights Award. The award cited Con Edison for holding voter registration drives for employees and the public, and for encouraging people to vote through customer outreach information. raise hatchlings in their classrooms and learn how to pr otect watershed areas. Each spring, students release their fish into streams upstate. In 2003, Con Edison also sponsored the Daffodil Project, a citywide living memorial of the 9/11 attacks. Since 2001, 15,000 New Yo rk volunteers have planted over two million daffodils in parks and gardens across the city to commemorate the attacks and celebrate the importance of parks in our community. employees were both a major focus and a major force for Con Edison. Our commitment to train the best workers in the industry continued at The Learning Center. Whether it is training new customer service representatives or upgrading the skills of field workers, The Learning Center staff works closely with operating departments to develop training programs that enable us to maintain our system, run more effective opera- tions, improve customer service, and nurture employee leadership skills. Our pursuit of envir onmental  excel- lence in operations continued in 2003, with several initiatives producing measurable and substantial benefits to the area’s air, land, and water. For example, in April Con Edison was awarded a Certificate of Achievement “for aggressively re ducing methane emissions and helping lead the way to reducing climate change impacts” by the U.S. Envir onmental  Protection Agency. Our instructors teach more than 750 active courses on electric, gas, and steam systems; customer operations; environment, health, and safety information technology; and leadership skills. Strategic Issues Seminars are designed to help employees gain the leadership skills necessary to run the Con Edison of tomorrow. In 2003, more than 11,000 employees attended on-site training programs and approximately 3,200 employees participated in interactive, long- distance learning and Web-based, self-study programs. In 2003, as in past years, our Recognizing that few issues are as important as the environment, Con Edison actively supports a number of organizations that seek to improve existing environmental conditions and educate students on the need to protect our air, water, and land. Our sponsorship of the Randall's Island Sports Foundation’s Kids Island Club Nature Program enables fourth and fifth graders from East Harlem to study water and land preservation in the natural setting of the island’s freshwater wetlands. Through the Trout in the Classroom program, which Con Edison also supports, students at Brooklyn’s Ditmas Intermediate School 62 and Manhattan’s P.S. 116 Helping Employees Gr ow Advancing Environmental Initiatives Page 12, Left: Enrique Torres, senior specialist, assists a student in the Trout in the Classroom program, which Con Edison supports. Center: The Neighborhood Housing Services, which helps people achieve first-time homeownership, is one of Con Edison’s strategic partners. Right: O&R senior training specialist Rob Kraese provides a classroom demonstration. Page 13, Left: As tour guide to our new children’s Web site, “Eddie” helps youngsters explore the world of energy. Center: Con Edison’s education initiatives support the High School for Environmental Studies. Right: ( Left to right ) Customer field representatives Reginald Gardner and Kenny Deleon, and senior analyst Margaret Drinan, in a training session at The Learning Center. Con Edison Annual Report 2003 13