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Good Tern Award
1/18/07 |
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Seatuck is pleased to announce the creation of the Good Tern Award, an annual honor to recognize an individual who has made a significant and sustained contribution of volunteer service to the organization. The award’s name and design is inspired by the Seatuck’s new logo, which features a least tern. The inaugural recipient of the award is Seatuck’s President Emeritus Fred Atwood. Mr. Atwood ,who lives in Islip and is an attorney with the Patchogue-based firm of Pellatreau & Pellatreau, has served on Seatuck’s Board of Directors since 1991 and spent more than a decade as President. His involvement and especially his legal counsel were a great asset to the fledgling organization after it was incorporated as a private not-for-profit in 1989 (Seatuck had previously existed as a unincorporated partnership between the Peters/Webster family, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology). Atwood was elected President of the Board in August 1993 and guided Seatuck through some difficult patches, including the death of the organization’s founding father, Charles Webster, in 1998, and the move from the Seatuck National Wildlife Refuge in 2002. Over the past several years, Atwood has presided over the expansion of Seatuck’s educational, research and policy efforts and the emergence of the organization as one of the leading environmental education providers on Long Island. His tenure as President also saw the successful effort to permanently preserve the 70-acre Scully Sanctuary in Islip and the partnering with Suffolk County to establish the nature center. While he may have originally been courted for the Board because of his legal know-how, Atwood’s service to Seatuck has been much more multi-faceted over the years. He has done everything from hosting fundraisers at his home to cleaning out old garages. He has worn every hat from auctioneer to mover to negotiator. And, as everyone who knows him attests, he’s done it all with warmth, humility and humor. Seatuck owes a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Atwood for his hard work, dedication and generosity over the years and especially during his tenure as President. To celebrate the award, Seatuck’s Board of Directors hosted a small gathering of Mr. Atwood’s friends and presented him with a mounted wood carving of a least tern. His name will be the first to adorn a new Good Tern Award plaque that will be prominently displayed in the nature center at Scully. |
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