2024 Conservation Celebration Raffle
Congratulations to Larry Doyle!
Thank you to all who purchased a ticket to help support us in saving the land and water you love!
The Event
Join us for the 2024 Conservation Celebration and Raffle!
Tuesday, October 8, 2024 @ 5:45 PM
Braeloch at Glenburn Farms, 2353 Hammond Drive, Vinton, VA 24179. Google maps link (Will show Boxtree Lodge; follow directional signs to Braeloch on the same property)
Come celebrate the hard work of local conservation heroes and enjoy food, drinks, and live music, raise funds to save the lands and waters you love!
2024 Award Recipients
Vic Thomas Award Winner
Bill Hackworth (left)
"Ann and I have traveled extensively since we retired, and have visited some beautiful places in the world, but we are always glad to return to our own beautiful Roanoke Valley. I am proud of the work that the Conservancy has done to preserve the open spaces and viewsheds that we enjoy so much, and the expansion of its efforts into a larger part of the Commonwealth. When I was Roanoke's City Attorney, I was fortunate to be in a position to facilitate placing of conservation easements on most of the City's property at Carvins Cove and on Mill Mountain - ensuring that those areas will be there for generations to come.
One benefit of being involved with our Conservancy is the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of great people who share the same goals - prospective easement donors, conserved property owners while we are on monitoring visits, staff and board members, and all of the supporters who attend the annual Conservation Celebration. It is a wonderful community of like-minded people. I can't imagine what our region would look like without them!
I always have to smile when traveling around our countryside when I see a sign posted on a property announcing that it has been protected by a conservation easement with the Blue Ridge land Conservancy. Let's hope that we see more and more of these!"
~ Bill Hackworth
"Ann and I have traveled extensively since we retired, and have visited some beautiful places in the world, but we are always glad to return to our own beautiful Roanoke Valley. I am proud of the work that the Conservancy has done to preserve the open spaces and viewsheds that we enjoy so much, and the expansion of its efforts into a larger part of the Commonwealth. When I was Roanoke's City Attorney, I was fortunate to be in a position to facilitate placing of conservation easements on most of the City's property at Carvins Cove and on Mill Mountain - ensuring that those areas will be there for generations to come.
One benefit of being involved with our Conservancy is the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of great people who share the same goals - prospective easement donors, conserved property owners while we are on monitoring visits, staff and board members, and all of the supporters who attend the annual Conservation Celebration. It is a wonderful community of like-minded people. I can't imagine what our region would look like without them!
I always have to smile when traveling around our countryside when I see a sign posted on a property announcing that it has been protected by a conservation easement with the Blue Ridge land Conservancy. Let's hope that we see more and more of these!"
~ Bill Hackworth
George Kegley Award Winner
Helen Burnett (right)
Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Helen Burnett settled in Roanoke and spent over 20 years in advertising, circulation and marketing management at The Roanoke Times followed by 15 years in sales and marketing at local retirement communities. As a cycling enthusiast, she is especially attracted to the beauty of rural back roads and this is what drew her to learning more about the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy and ultimately becoming a volunteer. Helen especially enjoys trips into the field, whether to meet a potential new donor and visit their property or to do a monitoring visit on an existing easement. There is always something beautiful to see, birds and wildlife, a scenic view, a stream to protect, wildflowers in bloom, or discovering a nest of goose eggs while checking out an island in the James River!
As a retiree, Helen enjoys travelling, book clubs and volunteering at her church, Second Presbyterian where she serves as Elder, is a member of the Bell Choir and participates in a variety of committees and outreach and mission projects like Habitat for Humanity. Among other past community activities she served as Board Member and President for Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia, Trustee for Taubman Museum of Art, and WVTF reader for Radio Reading Service.
Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Helen Burnett settled in Roanoke and spent over 20 years in advertising, circulation and marketing management at The Roanoke Times followed by 15 years in sales and marketing at local retirement communities. As a cycling enthusiast, she is especially attracted to the beauty of rural back roads and this is what drew her to learning more about the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy and ultimately becoming a volunteer. Helen especially enjoys trips into the field, whether to meet a potential new donor and visit their property or to do a monitoring visit on an existing easement. There is always something beautiful to see, birds and wildlife, a scenic view, a stream to protect, wildflowers in bloom, or discovering a nest of goose eggs while checking out an island in the James River!
As a retiree, Helen enjoys travelling, book clubs and volunteering at her church, Second Presbyterian where she serves as Elder, is a member of the Bell Choir and participates in a variety of committees and outreach and mission projects like Habitat for Humanity. Among other past community activities she served as Board Member and President for Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia, Trustee for Taubman Museum of Art, and WVTF reader for Radio Reading Service.
Keynote speaker: Jay Leutze
Jay Leutze will discuss conservation from our Appalachian backyard to the global effort to protect 30% of the earth's land and water by 2030. Trained as an attorney, he has become a leading voice for state and federal conservation funding for investment in public lands. He is the senior board advisor for Asheville, NC's Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC), one of the nation's most established land trusts. He has served as chair of the land protection committee, directs their government relations program, and has been president of the board. He is the author of Stand Up that Mountain: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness Along the Appalachian Trail (Simon & Schuster). In the tradition of A Civil Action, it's the compelling true story of a North Carolina outdoorsman who teams up with his Appalachian neighbors to save a treasured landscape from being destroyed.
He is the national spokesman for the Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition and has testified before Congress on the need for increased funding for public land conservation. He is frequently asked to be a guest lecturer on conservation. Since publication of Stand Up That Mountain he has lectured at 38 universities across the country, teaching courses in literature, environmental studies, environmental law and public policy. He recently appeared at the National Press Club in Washington DC. In 2012, he was awarded North Carolina's highest civilian honor, The Order of the Longleaf Pine, for his contribution to the conservation of land and water in his home state. He was the winner of the 2013 North Carolina Governor's Conservation Communicator of the Year Award and was named Outstanding Conservation Advocate by the Roosevelt-Ashe Society. Since 2007 he has been on the team leading the effort to pass and implement the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). In 2020 Leutze was invited to the White House for the GAOA signing ceremony and will discuss navigating a broken Congress and dysfunctional administration to get the bill across the finish line.
Stand Up That Mountain has won numerous awards, including The Reed Environmental Writing Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center, and was named the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Nonfiction Book of the Year. The American Bar Association honored the book at its Silver Gavel Awards dinner in July, 2013, citing it as "a work of art that has added to the public's understanding of the law."
He is the national spokesman for the Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition and has testified before Congress on the need for increased funding for public land conservation. He is frequently asked to be a guest lecturer on conservation. Since publication of Stand Up That Mountain he has lectured at 38 universities across the country, teaching courses in literature, environmental studies, environmental law and public policy. He recently appeared at the National Press Club in Washington DC. In 2012, he was awarded North Carolina's highest civilian honor, The Order of the Longleaf Pine, for his contribution to the conservation of land and water in his home state. He was the winner of the 2013 North Carolina Governor's Conservation Communicator of the Year Award and was named Outstanding Conservation Advocate by the Roosevelt-Ashe Society. Since 2007 he has been on the team leading the effort to pass and implement the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). In 2020 Leutze was invited to the White House for the GAOA signing ceremony and will discuss navigating a broken Congress and dysfunctional administration to get the bill across the finish line.
Stand Up That Mountain has won numerous awards, including The Reed Environmental Writing Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center, and was named the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Nonfiction Book of the Year. The American Bar Association honored the book at its Silver Gavel Awards dinner in July, 2013, citing it as "a work of art that has added to the public's understanding of the law."
E-bike Raffle
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The E-bike raffle is sold out! Winning ticket will be drawn at the Conservation Celebration on October 8. Stay tuned to see you are the winner!
Questions? Contact Emily Bender 540-985-0000 ext. 2 |
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Thank you to our 2024 sponsors!
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
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Silver Sponsors
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