Environmental advocate Donna Wong was honored last week by Gov. Linda Lingle and the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women at a Washington Place reception celebrating Women's History Month and saluting women leaders in the Islands.

Wong received the 2009 Women's History Month award. Indru Watumull and Dr. Donnis Thompson are the previous winners of the award.

Lingle praised Wong's courage in challenging what sometimes seemed like overwhelming odds.

"Women are nurturers by nature, and it makes sense that this extends to caring for the environment," said Lingle.

"Donna's journey, like that of our past honorees or any other women leaders, has not been without fear or insecurity. But, as Eleanor Roosevelt said, 'You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.' "

Added commission chairwoman Carol Philips, "Donna Wong has been and remains one of the most knowledgeable and staunchest defenders of Hawai'i's fragile environment in modern history."

Wong, executive director of Hawai'i's Thousand Friends, has devoted three decades to protecting Hawai'i's environmental and cultural resources. As co-founder of the Aloha 'Aina Congress, she helped organize a statewide network of people dedicated to promoting environmentally favorable legislation and to fighting measures they believed would compromise Hawai'i's 'aina and waters.

Among those applauding loudly at the reception were Life of the Land executive director Henry Curtis and assistant director Kat Brady.

"We've worked with Donna on water and land-use issues, especially in trying to protect agriculture land," Brady said following the reception. "We've partnered with her many times in the past, and will many times in the future — because we're not done yet."