Six community leaders recognized at awards ceremony. Wendy Hager named citizen of the year.

Michelle Bennett’s acceptance speech:  This award deserves to be shared.  People who volunteer require the support of all the guests who are here tonight or in my case parents that stayed home to watch our kids.  Without the family and friendship networks  that help cover our at home and work  responsibilities, we’d be so hard pressed to join organizations and committees and support the good work being done in Burlington.  So my heartfelt thank you to you all.Another reason to share this award is because it was and still is a team effort to create this wonderful new community garden.  City Staff  identified available funds early on, and worked diligently to prepare staff reports that City Council unanimously endorsed.  The Burlington Sustainable Development CAC led the charge and BurlingtonGreen received the baton and ran with it to create a wonderful supportive program to really kick start this new pilot community garden.  Citizens have been impressed with the good work of the Parks and RPM staff in the garden construction, and are simply thrilled to be involved with this healthy grow-it-yourself opportunity to add fresh food to their daily plates.To receive this Environmental award has made me ponder the meaning of being identified publically as an Environmentalist.An environmentalist is someone who believes our consumer driven lifestyles have collectively contributed to climate change.  Someone who believes that by reducing our personal impact and by voicing our concern to change government policy and corporate practice that collectively we can hope to mitigate the negative consequences that threaten our immediate security, and our future survival.Personal action is where we each have the most control.   For instance, our household of 5 uses one vehicle. Our kids and I quite easily get the majority of what we need and want done by carpooling, taking a bus, walking or riding a bike.   To transition from stay at home mom I chose to spend my time volunteering for causes I felt important, and work for a local non-profit that advocates and provides programs to support environmental awareness and local policy for a healthier, greener city.  Thank you to Amy Schnurr and BurlingtonGreen for this opportunity.  I grow a garden (a few now actually), buy organic and local food when I can, and hope to inspire others to do the same. I am a daughter, a spouse, mother and citizen.  I do not wear an environmentalist label exclusively or intentionally.  It seems to be something that has grown on me naturally as I have simply altered small and large day to day practices making decisions with a conscious scope on what many consider common sense basics:  Refuse. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Grow. Buy and Eat Local.    Many people are aligned with the environmental movement’s goals even if they don’t necessarily align themselves with the movement itself.  We all can live eco friendly lives simply by striving daily to make rational balanced decisions.  Living lightly is a balancing act we can all improve upon.To truly create a more sustainable and equitable social and economic system we need to embrace the creation of “green” jobs and welcome more eco-conscious industry and services to Burlington.  I hope that the City or Chamber of Commerce will someday create an award to recognize the achievement of social, economic and environmental triple bottom line success in Burlington. We need to look past inherited divisions and understand that most of us are on the same side with the same fears, hopes and goals regardless of what labels we may wear.  Timelines are a victim of politics, but goals can be reached in both the short and long term as long as the commitment is made.  Individual efforts can make a difference, and collectively we can make good things grow.