The Ottawa River Coalition held their annual meeting Saturday night and four people were presented awards for their impact in the organization.
The four awards given out were to people who have either helped the organization as a whole, or have helped the rivers and environment. The volunteer of the year award went to Barbara Farley-Wilson who helped better organize the coalition’s main fundraising event. With her improvements, they raised thousands more. She explains why it’s so important to advocate for an organization like this. “You want to be able to say ‘Go down and play at the river’ to your grand kids, you know, lets go down, lets paddle boat, lets do something like that, and we’re able to do that because of organizations like this," says Farley-Wilson.
The other awards were given to Leslie Riley who teaches at ONU and conducts research with her students on the river, Rachel Hern who founded Lima Clean and conducted major litter clean up events, and Casey Heilman who has widely expanded the awareness of the Ottawa River Watershed in her role as Community Outreach coordinator.
