NMSF Volunteer of the Year Award
CONGRATULATIONS to Jennifer Ferre, Executive Director of Stellwagen Alive! —Friends of Our National Marine Sanctuary.
Jennifer Ferre was SBNMS's 2009 nominee for the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation's Volunteer of the Year Award. The Foundation honored a volunteer from each sanctuary, whose enthusiasm and diligence have contributed so much to our National Marine Sanctuary Program and to ocean preservation in general. In June, Jennifer attended the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation Leadership Awards Dinner and was part of the Capitol Hill Oceans Week, a two-day symposium on Capitol Hill.
Jennifer has volunteered countless hours for sanctuary-related public awareness raising and establishing new and innovative outreach programs since 2006 through the establishment of Stellwagen Alive!—Friends of Our National Marine Sanctuary. Stellwagen Alive's 2008-2009 signature project is the SBNMS Marine Debris Initiative, which has taken a leadership role in the identification and removal of harmful, derelict fishing gear in SBNMS. These efforts included hosting the first regional Workshop to examine these issues. The Workshop, held at the New England Aquarium, was attended by some of the regions most influential leaders from commercial fishing, commercial lobstering and the scientific community. The follow-up to the workshop is the creation of Stellwagen Sweep, a multi-year collaboration with the fishing community to find, remove and recycle sea debris from Stellwagen.
In her capacity as Executive Director of Stellwagen Alive!, Jennifer serves as a liaison for successful dialogue between the at-large community interests and the Sanctuary. Jennifer’s enthusiasm, innovation, and clarity of purpose inspires constituents toward ‘thinking outside of the box’ to motivate positive ‘resource protection’ action. Jennifer Ferre embodies the spirit of sanctuary stewardship—her words and actions focus on changing public attitudes toward sanctuary health, through emphasizing the importance of education and outreach as agents to support and improve scientific understanding and expanding management capacity. She recognizes the importance of the involvement of communities and the development of an essential stewardship ethic, which is vitally important to protect sanctuary resources. Jennifer believes that the sanctuary can extend its benefit well beyond the limit of its geographic boundaries.
Thank you, Jennifer! |
