Author/humorist Perry is guest speaker at new conservation awards program
Nationally known humorist and author Michael Perry will be the guest speaker Thursday evening, May 20, when the 2010 Champions of Conservation Award Program is held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
The awards program is sponsored by Dominion, the parent company of the Kewaunee Power Station. The independent environmental advocacy organization Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership is coordinating nomination and selection of the award winners. Co-hosts of the May 20 event on campus are UW-Green Bay entities including the institution’s Center for Food in Community and Culture, the Environmental Management and Business Institute (EMBI), and the SLO Food Alliance student group.
Awards will be made to individuals or groups that model environmental leadership within Wisconsin’s Lakeshore Basin. Categories include water resources protection, environmental education and outreach, and land use protection and habitat restoration. Recipient of the Champion of Conservation Award will be selected from three finalists and awarded $2,000 to be directed to the non-profit organization of their choice. Awards of $500 will be made to the other two finalists.
Reservations are required for the Champions of Conservation Award Program, which will run from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Phoenix Room of the University Union. For more information, contact Jim Kettler, executive director of the Lakeshore National Resource Partnership, Inc. at (920) 304-1919; or jim@lnrp.org.
Author Michael Perry’s presentation at 7 p.m. in the Phoenix Room is open to the general public. Reservations are not required. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted. Perry will reflect on how landscape and sense of place shape his work. Given that he lives in rural Wisconsin with his wife and daughters, that landscape includes cows, cheese, manure spreaders and pitchforks.
Perry won critical acclaim as a regional author with the 2002 publication of his first memoir, Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time. His essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Backpacker, Outside and Orion, and he is also the author of the books Coop: A Family, a Farm and the Pursuit of One Good Egg and Truck: A Love Story. He tours regularly with his band The Long Beds, and recently released his first album. He chronicles his rural Wisconsin world in his popular blog, www.sneezingcow.com. A display of his books will be on hand for purchase and author autographing.
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