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June 2004
Newsletter
Red Hill Activists Recognized
Red Hill activists shared the Environmentalist of the Year award for 2003. Kevin Hamilton and Betty Blashill were co-winners of the Dr. Victor Cecilioni award issued annually for the last 25 years to Hamiltonian environmental leaders. Two other friends of the valley were also honoured. Joanna Chapman received a Lifetime Achievement award and Norman Jacobs was honoured posthumously with an Award of Merit. The awards were handed out at the 25 th annual dinner held on June 2 and attended by over 200 people.
Kevin spent over two days sitting in a tree in opposition to the expressway, and played a leading role in the occupation of the Greenhill Avenue construction site. Many will recall him as the young man who shaved his head at the August 5 rally to raise over $1000 for the Showstoppers. Earlier environmental achievements include a 5000 km cycle across Australia in 1999 to raise environmental awareness, and a 10,000 km "cycle for sustainability" across Canada in 2002.
Betty was recognized for her long-term, but often unseen efforts on behalf of a long list of environmental causes and organizations since 1989. She spent several years as both treasurer and membership coordinator for Friends of Red Hill Valley and currently designs and maintains seven local environmental sites including the Friends website. She has also been treasurer of several other groups including Environment Hamilton and the Hamilton Naturalists' Club.
Joanna has assisted nearly every environmental initiative in Hamilton since the 1970s. A tireless advocate of sane urbanism, she fought sprawl long before most of us knew the term. Some of her more visible accomplishments include the Urquhart Butterfly Garden and the natural landscape around her bookstore, and initiating the public purchase of the Dundas Valley. Joanna is an urbanist and a peace activist and effectively uses her knowledge of planning and the legal system, and a vast network of friends to get things done.
Norm Jacobs brought aboriginal rights to Hamilton's environmental movement, and his people to the effort to protect the Red Hill Valley. A member of the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, Norman led the defence of sacred aboriginal burial sites and the natural world that enfolds them. His self-sacrificing leadership and patient explanation of the Great Law of Peace established the guiding principles for the expressway opposition and continue to inspire all who knew him.
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