BOSTON: Clean Water Action today announced their 2024 class of environmental champions, including four state legislators. They will be honored at the organization’s 2024 Fall Celebration, September 25th, at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation. Massachusetts Climate Chief, Melissa Hoffer, will be delivering the keynote address.
“Our honorees are inspirational leaders representing communities across the state,” said Elizabeth Saunders, Clean Water Action State Co-Director. “They collectively demonstrate that even in a challenging legislative climate, grassroots leaders and legislative allies can create positive change to make Massachusetts cleaner, healthier, and more just.”
The 2024 awardees are as follows:
Legislative Champions - Speaker Pro Tempore Kate Hogan, State Representative Jim Hawkins, State Senator Michael Moore, and State Senator Julian Cyr: Clean Water Action’s four Legislative Champions are being honored for successfully leading the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to ban toxic PFAS in firefighters’ turnout gear.
2024 John O’Connor Awards - Clean Water Action gives two awards in honor of John O’Connor, a much beloved activist in the Massachusetts environmental community who died in 2001. John founded, led, and supported many environmental health organizations and campaigns, and is remembered for his love of organizing and his deep appreciation of our canvass teams.
- John O’Connor Grassroots Leadership Award - Truro Community Kitchen: Truro Community Kitchen, a nonprofit fighting food insecurity by delivering free meals to Truro residents, is being honored for preventing thousands of pieces of single-use trash by serving meals in reusable containers as part of Clean Water’s ReThink Disposable campaign.
- John O’Connor Canvassing Award - Julia Scalera: Julia Scalera, Clean Water Action’s Northampton Field Canvass Director, is being honored for her years of organizing with Clean Water Action, during which she has trained and mentored hundreds of first-time advocates, creating a legacy of empowered grassroots activists across Massachusetts.
Youth Leadership Award - Christina Mui: Christine Mui, a junior at Malden High School, is being honored for her leadership as part of the Spring 2024 class of Clean Water Action’s Youth Action Collaborative where she inspired others with her passion for environmental organizing.
Youth Engagement Award - Kathy Maglio: Kathy Maglio, a teacher at Malden High School, is being honored for her unwavering support of the Youth Action Collaborative and for her mentorship of the students enrolled in the program.
Clean Water Champion - Sofia Owen: Sofia Owen, Senior Attorney for Alternatives for Community and Environment, is being honored for fighting for Environmental Justice communities and for steadfast leadership as a Co-Convener of the Massachusetts Environmental Justice Legislative Table.
Lifetime Achievement Award - Liz Harriman: Liz Harriman, former Deputy Director of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute, is being honored for 32 years of strategic and effective leadership in reducing the use of toxic chemicals in Massachusetts.
For more information about the event, including tickets and sponsorships, please visit cleanwater.org/ma-fall.
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Since our founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, Clean Water Action has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking, and people power to the table. www.cleanwater.org