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Local award recognizes agents of positive change inspiring a sustainable and healthy environment CARE for the Cape & Islands presented their annual stewardship awards during the CARE About a Clean Cape & Islands Summit held November 4, at the Mid-Cape Conference Center in Yarmouth. Nominations were requested from the public for the Business/Organization Stewardship Award and Youth Stewardship Award. Entrepreneurs, NGO’s, municipal leaders and nonprofit organizations from the Cape and Islands attended the event. Attendees at the Summit heard from Julie Regan, External Affairs Chief & Deputy Director, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, about how they built Take Care Tahoe into a supportive stewardship collaborative that benefits their community. Local businesses/organizations presented Cape & Islands success stories that showed how they built environmental sustainability initiatives into their business model. Attendees took away actionable steps to use in their own organization. The CARE Business/Organization Stewardship Award was presented to Stephanie Murphy, Woods Hole Sea Grant Communications Specialist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The award recognizes an organization’s commitment to protecting the natural beauty of Cape Cod and the Islands and who have adopted day-to-day practices that fit CARE’s mission to preserve and enhance its natural environment, culture, or history. Stephanie was recognized for spearheading a program that resulted in a significant reduction of plastic in the waste stream due to a successful boat shrink-wrap program. Working in collaboration with a number of municipalities, an estimated 15-20,000 pounds/7.5-10 tons of shrink wrap were collected in the 12-week period and diverted from the waste stream. The Youth Award is presented to an individual or youth group who is age 18 or younger and exhibits the same commitment to caring for Cape Cod and the Islands. This year’s award was presented to Zoe Simmons, a Harwich resident and student at Nauset Middle High School. She is a reporter for the school's paper: The Nauset Current who uses the platform to speak up for Cape Cod's beauty and how to enhance it. Last semester she authored two articles to promote the health and well being of our local environment. The first was titled "How to Protect Our Oceans" in which she gave her readers a long list of things they could do on a daily basis to protect our local coastlines. The second was "How to Help Fight Climate Change." For this story she interviewed Jon Bruce, the land stewardship coordinator for the Brewster Conservation Trust.When she isn't working on the school paper she is an active member of OPAK's Club The Blue Crew, a place where students come together to learn about and advocate for our blue planet. Director Jill Talladay said, “We believe that it’s important to recognize and encourage those individuals and organizations that are doing amazing things to take care of this special place. Our stewardship awards are presented to those who go above and beyond, on a regular basis.” Previous recipients may be found at https://careforthecapeandislands.org/stewardship-award/