The Maine Environmental Education Association (MEEA) will announce the winners of its annual environmental education awards recognizing this year's most outstanding environmental educator, school, business and environmental program in the state of Maine. These awards will be announced at MEEA's annual conference on Friday, March 23rd at the Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine at 8:30 a.m. Winners for 2012 include:
- Oakhurst Dairy: The Maine Environmental Education Association Business of Year
- Lincoln Middle School, Portland, ME: The Maine Environmental Education Association School of the Year
- Kennebec Land Trust: The Excellence in Environmental Education Program Award
- Joanne DeFilipp Alex: Eberhard Thiele Environmental Educator of the Year
Oakhurst Dairy is the first for profit business to be recognized by the Maine Environmental Education Association and will receive the Business of the Year award. In 2012, MEEA added for profit business to its award categories. Oakhurst is being recognized for its endless work on improving the company’s sustainability, reducing its carbon footprint, and its generous charitable contributions to environmental education, outdoor education and conservation associations in the state of Maine.
Lincoln Middle School, of Portland, Maine, the winner of the Maine Environmental Education Association School of the Year, is being recognized for its whole-school efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and increase the school's energy efficiency through student-led service learning projects.
The Kennebec Land Trust, the winner of the Maine Environmental Education Association’s Excellence in Environmental Education Program Award, is being recognized for so aptly upholding its mission to work cooperatively with landowners and communities to conserve lands in central Maine, support sustainable forestry and farming, and to educate the public about the natural world.
Joanne DeFilipp Alex, a lead teacher at the Stillwater Montessori School in Old Town, Maine is the winner of MEEA's 2012 Eberhard Thiele Environmental Educator of the Year award. Joanne, a former Maine Teacher of the Year (1998), is an inspirational teacher who instills a love of nature in her students. She is also dedicated to teaching other teachers and pre-service teachers in Maine about environmental education. For over 20 years she has served as a facilitator for Project Learning Tree and Project Wild. She has authored books on environmental education, taught related college courses, and has inspired many students, teachers and parents to become stewards of their environment.
This year’s MEEA conference, “Building Partnerships for Sustainable Communities: Gathering the Usual and Unusual Suspects,” is the key gathering of environmental educators around the state but will also feature conservation organization staff, health advocates, business leaders, governmental agencies, outdoor recreation groups and the agriculture industry. MEEA’s goal for the conference is to expand beyond the typical environmental education audience, integrating all sectors in recognition that the success of our communities relies on a healthy, active, engaged and environmentally literate population.
The awards ceremony will take place at the Chewonki Foundation, located at 485 Chewonki Neck Road Wiscasset, ME 04578. In case of inclement weather, the conference will be held on Saturday, March 24, 2012, at Chewonki.
For more information about MEEA and environmental education in Maine, please explore MEEA’s website at http://www.meeassociation.org/ and MEEA’s blog at http://maineeeassociation.blogspot.com/.
For any questions, please contact MEEA's award chairperson Olivia Griset at 207-232-6964 or oliviagriset@yahoo.com.
For any questions, please contact MEEA's award chairperson Olivia Griset at 207-232-6964 or oliviagriset@yahoo.com.
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