In a normal year, ecomaine’s eco-Excellence Award winners are announced at a luncheon event in March with dozens of people in attendance. In fact, the 2020 event to showcase Mainers who go above and beyond in their work to promote sustainability was one of the very last events ecomaine held before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown occurred. But with so much uncertainty over the last year, ecomaine instead honored this year’s class via a video tribute, unveiled to nearly 100 guests at ecomaine’s 2021 annual meeting in Portland on Thursday, June 17.
“On behalf of ecomaine, I want to say a huge ‘thank you’ to all these leaders in sustainability. We are fortunate to have you in Maine, and helping our communities,” said Kevin Roche, CEO of ecomaine, at the meeting. The honorees include people, businesses, and non-profits from various industries around southern Maine; they are:
- Arnold Vickery, Hollis (a trash and recycling collection worker in Hollis who went the extra mile to educate residents about recycling contamination while on his route)
- David Love & Maine Beer Company, Freeport (for their commitment to leading the Company’s “Blue Crew” in efforts to recover more waste and save it from landfills)
- Curtis Dimock & the staff from the Yarmouth Transfer Station (for their dedication and hard work for town residents during this particularly challenging year)
- The Ecology School, Saco (for its leadership in education about sustainability, from its curriculum to its new campus buildings and solar arrays)
- Rev. Priscilla Dreyman, Cape Elizabeth United Methodist Church (whose inclusion of recycling into their ministry and education is inspirational and provides leadership by example for what we can all do in our own corner of the world)
- Mary Vertz & The Casco Bay Cleanup Project, Portland (who has started a movement to keep litter out of Maine’s beautiful waterways and make sure trash ends up where it belongs)
- Kelly Meslin, Town of Gorham Public Works (for her service on the front lines of major shifts in the way Gorham does its recycling and trash business, making sure that residents are informed and connected)
- Scarborough Land Trust (for its commitment to preserving natural spaces and – critically in the past year – access to land as a way of escaping some pandemic-induced stress)
“We weren’t able to gather as usual for our awards ceremony in March,” said Matt Grondin, ecomaine’s Communications Manager. “But we are so glad to have had this exciting new way to honor our awardees in a really great setting at Thompson’s Point.”