It takes a whole community working together to conserve land and protect it forever. Supporters come in many forms – from the generous folks who stepped for our Building a Resilient Future campaign to the Trailblazers who support us through monthly donations – we are so lucky to live in a place that values the Conservancy’s work.
Some members of our community support the Conservancy, and the cause of conservation more generally, in other impactful ways. To honor those people who go above and beyond for our community, the Conservancy will be presenting three community awards at our upcoming Annual Celebration (Thursday, September 18th at The Showroom in Keene. Free registration available here). Each of these awards represents hard work, support, and a passion for the land.
Peter Kenyon of Dublin will be receiving the Founder’s Award, given to an individual who has contributed substantially to the success, stability, and capabilities of the Monadnock Conservancy over a sustained period of time. Peter has served on the Conservancy’s Board of Trustees since 2017, including one term as Vice President and two terms as President. In that time, Peter gave the Conservancy sage guidance and a lot of time, helping us through a leadership transition, preparing us to meet the ever-increasing demand for conserved land, advocating for conservation at the highest levels of state and federal government, and always being a supportive and insightful voice in the boardroom. We know Peter will always be someone we reach out to for advice, but as his tenure on the Board of Trustees comes to end, we wanted to honor his steadfast support over these seven years.
Dr. Jacqueline Lyon is the winner of the 2025 Volunteer of the Year Award. In 2025, Dr. Lyon stepped up for our Land Protection team, helping them crank through a large, and quite tedious, document digitization project. We have rarely had a more overqualified assistant: Jacqueline is an oncologist with a long and impressive career in medicine! We were so lucky that she volunteered to help, and we couldn’t be more thankful.
The Philip Faulkner Award is presented to an organization, group, or individual whose community service blends thoughtful land use planning and conservation with well-conceived community development and includes a high degree of collaboration among many stakeholders. This year we are honored to present this award to Michael and Kathy Nerrie of Walpole, the founders and operators of Distant Hill Gardens and Trail – a non-profit organization that is the definition of thoughtful and impactful land use. This beautiful, conserved space is open to the public, and boasts an extensive trail network, pollinator gardens, and community spaces. Michael and Kathy do an enormous amount of work to offer this space to the public. They have worked closely with the Conservancy, along with many other local environmental organizations, to ensure the property meets the highest standards of forest stewardship. From everyone in Walpole (and beyond), we say thank you!
All three awards will be presented at the Monadnock Conservancy’s Annual Celebration, happening on Thursday, September 18th at The Showroom (20 Commercial Street, Keene) from 5pm-7pm. It is free to attend, to register please use this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monadnock-conservancys-36th-annual-celebration-tickets-1474942425499?aff=oddtdtcreator