Ian Somerhalder's dedication and hard work on green energy, environmental conservation and animal rights is now getting acknowledged as the "Vampire Diaries" actor received the Golden Goody Award at the Social Good Summit held in New York City.

Ian Somerhalder poses with his Golden Goody Award. Photo Credit: Twitter/@DelenaOTP

Devoted fans nominated Mr Somerhalder through the social networking site Twitter and the Goody Awards thought that the perfect time to honor the actor/activist is at the summit. "Thank you guys so much. This is an incredible honor, and I will try to keep it up," Ian stated during his acceptance speech.

Liz H. Kelly, the Goody Awards founder, also honored the 34-year-old heartthrob actor with the first Hero Goody necklace for the "Free The Children" advocacy. The necklace is a part of the new Tag Good program that the Goody Awards will officially launch at the "We Day" in Minnesota on October 8, 2013.

Ian Somerhalder joined RYOT News co-founders Bryn Mooser and David Darg at the Social Good Summit panel where the discussion focused on how RYOT News and social media give power to the worldwide citizens. "Ultimately using social media as the tool, that empowerment leads to activation, it leads to collaboration and ultimately it will lead to quantifiable change," Ian stated when asked about the power of social media and youth.

The actor further added: "If you can empower a young person or anyone to realize that you can do something locally that's actually going to impact our global nature, it's really, really empowering, and it creates doers, it's not just talking." Mr Somerhalder shared that the best social media site that he often uses is Twitter where his millions of followers continue posting the @iansomerhalder and @RYOTNews tweets.

"Now they're re-tweeting this, it's in schools, they're talking to their parents about it, and social media changed the world. This all has to be in a collaborative spirit, and I truly encourage anyone whether you have 5 followers or 5 million followers to use that microphone to amplify voices around you and spread that information. That's the idea, using social media to create quantifiable change," the actor explained.

Ian Somerhalder established the Ian Somerhalder Foundation (ISF) to persuade youth to take part in green projects and show support to environmental causes as well as animal rights. A couple of ISF projects included the "Green Your Thirst Campaign" that banned the sales of plastic bottles on campuses nationwide and the "Plastic Straws Can Suck It Campaign" that prohibited plastic straws around lakes and beaches.

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