PROVIDENCE – Save The Bay announced four local residents and one volunteer organization as the recipients of its 2017 environmental awards – according to a Monday release.
The recipients – Pawtucket’s Mike Rubin, Greg Gerritt of Providence, Portsmouth’s Jennifer Hole, Central Falls High School junior Gabriela Morais and Save The Bay Seal Monitors – will be recognized at the nonprofit organization’s annual meeting and Taste the Bay fundraising event on Thursday, June 15 at the Bay Center in Providence.
Rubin, an assistant attorney general and chief of the R.I. attorney general’s environmental unit, will receive the Environmental Achievement Award which honors individuals who are active environmental advocates in their community.
Gerritt, who will receive the Alison Walsh Award for Outstanding Environmental Advocacy, is a board member on the state’s environment council and long-time activist for ecological and economic justice.
Jennifer Hole, a third-grade teacher at Pell Elementary School in Portsmouth, has been named Bay Educator of the Year for her integration of Save The Bay research and materials into the third-grade curriculum in Newport’s public schools – which have impacted more than 1,000 students.
Save The Bay will honor Central Falls High School junior, Gabriela Morais, as its Student of the Year in recognition of her mentorship to young students in the organization’s Providence Afterschool Alliance Summer Scholars program and Junior Baycamps.
The volunteer organization of the year is Save The Bay Seal Monitors, a group of individuals which analyzes harbor seal population and habits in Narragansett Bay. Barbara Walton-Faria, Richard and Susan Graefe, Jane Walsh and Shawen Williams – the five longest-serving volunteers, will accept the award on behalf of the organization.
The annual meeting and award ceremony will be immediately followed by Save The Bay’s Taste of the Bay fundraising event from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The Bay Center is located at 100 Save The Bay Drive in Providence.
Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey.
