NYC 16-year-old among recipients of 2024 Princess Diana Legacy Award

Three Americans, including one teenager hailing from NYC, were among the 20 Legacy Award recipients at Thursday’s 2024 Diana Awards, named in memory of the late Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales.

Established in 1999 by the British government, the Diana Awards celebrate young people who are changing the world through social impact and humanitarian efforts.

The Legacy Award specifically, launched in 2017, “celebrates the achievements of 20 outstanding young leaders, visionaries and role models from across the world, who have demonstrated their ability to inspire and mobilize new generations to service their communities, as the late Princess Diana believed they could,” the website for the award reads.

16-year-old native New Yorker Hailey Richman was recognized for her work as the founder and CEO of KidCaregivers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering and supporting young people who serve as caregivers, and to enriching the lives of adults affected by Alzheimer’s. Richman launched the organization when she was just 8 — four years after her own grandmother was diagnosed with the disease.

Through Richman’s nonprofit, she has also launched a program that pairs other young volunteers with puzzle-solving sessions for people with dementia-related disease, and has helped distribute over 136,000 puzzles to more than 5,000 care homes.

Richman, who was previously honored at the age of 12 as a 2019 Empower Player by DoSomething.org, said she hopes the award will “spread awareness but also inspire other young people around the world to do something to make a change.”

Among the other American nominees was 18-year-old Olivia Zhang, hailing from McLean, Virginia, who was recognized for creating Cancer Kids First, the world’s largest youth-led organization, which works towards lessening the challenges that patients of pediatric cancer face.

Meanwhile, University of Michigan School of Business alum Sikander “Sonny” Khan, 26, founded the Paani Project and has since raised over $6.1 million to tackle Pakistan’s lack of secure access to clean water. The organization has built over 17,000 wells and served more than 2.5 million meals to villagers across the Southeast Asian country.

Diana’s oldest son, Prince William, was on hand at London’s Science Museum on Thursday to give a speech and present this year’s Legacy Awards.

The future King of England referred to the 25th anniversary of the Diana Awards as “particularly special.”

“I know that she would have been honored to see a charity in her name doing such inspirational work to uplift young people from all corners of the globe,” he said, regarding his late mother, who died in 1997. “She taught me that everyone has the potential to give something back, that everyone in need deserves a supporting hand in life.”

Runaway royal Prince Harry also made an appearance — albeit virtually.

After his older brother left the ceremony, the embattled Duke of Sussex spoke with Diana Award recipients via video from his home in California.

The “Spare” author thanked Diana Award CEO Tessy Ojo for choosing a “fantastic group of individuals” to receive the honor.