150 Supporters Celebrate Honorees at the 2024 Annual Meeting

Peterborough Players Hosts Our 54th Annual Meeting

On Sunday, October 20, the Harris Center for Conservation Education hosted our 54th Annual Meeting at the Peterborough Players, welcoming nearly 150 supporters for an afternoon of celebration, reflection, and recognition. The event honored individuals who have had a lasting impact on the Monadnock Region and included a special performance of A Journey to the White Mountains in Words and Music by writer Howard Mansfield and composer Ben Cosgrove.

Honoring Local Educators, Volunteers, & Partners

Community Programs Director and teacher-naturalist Susie Spikol presented the Laurie Bryan Partnership Award to Erika Rosenfeld from Post & Beam Brewing in Peterborough for her “generosity of heart, community consciousness, and dedication to the Harris Center’s values and mission.” Since its founding in 2018, Post & Beam has hosted the Harris Center for many nature-inspired events, including trivia takeovers and our popular Nature on Tap series. “Post and Beam might be one of the only breweries that can boast not only of a delicious beer called Cosmic Love,” Susie said, “but also of having a pollinator garden, LED lighting, and a geothermal HVAC system.” Susie also thanked Rosenfeld “for being willing to partner with us even when our programs include such topics as drunk animals, hallucinogenic fungi, and cannibalistic insects.” Accepting her award, Erika noted that the Venn diagram of nature lovers and beer lovers is essentially a single overlapping circle.

Educator of the Year Patricia Glabach Boulle thanked the Harris Center for being an amazing resource to local teachers. (photo © Ben Conant)

Special education teacher Patricia Glabach Boulle from Rindge Memorial School was honored with the Harris Center’s Educator of the Year Award, presented by teacher-naturalist Jaime Hutchinson. Glabach Boulle, the first special education teacher to receive this award, was recognized for integrating outdoor learning into her teaching. Despite limited time with her students, her approach — which includes a three-day process of preparation, outdoor exploration, and reflection — has led to significant improvements in her students’ observation, writing, and teamwork skills. “I believe that if we help children make connections to nature, they will become stewards and caregivers,” Patricia said.

The 2024 Volunteer Extraordinaire Award went to Susan Masters, a key figure behind the scenes of the Harris Center’s place-based education program. School Program Manager Jenna Spear praised Masters for her precision and care in tasks ranging from creating curriculum kits and student certificates to compiling a massive email list of educators at 32 partner schools. Masters expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to be involved with the Harris Center after retirement, calling it “one of the great volunteer opportunities in the region.”

Honoring Staff & Board Milestones

Executive Director Jeremy Wilson celebrated Harris Center teacher-naturalist Susie Spikol for her 30 years of service, praising her as the “creative genius” behind many beloved programs such as LAB GIRLS+ and Babies in Backpacks. Jeremy highlighted Susie’s creativity and adaptability as two of her superpowers. “I thought Jeremy was going to say my superpowers are my scat collection and my hair,” she joked. Susie thanked her coworkers, former Executive Director Meade Cadot for his mentorship, and Harris Center founder Eleanor Briggs for exemplifying the “power and impact one committed and heart-centered, generous individual can have on a community.” “We are so lucky Susie found us!” Cadot commented after the event. “Her background and innate abilities as a talented and engaging writer and teacher (and an entertaining emcee too!) make her a natural for connecting children — and in fact all of us — with the natural world.”

Chairperson Michael George recognized the Harris Center’s Board of Trustees for volunteering their time and talents. He thanked outgoing Vice Chair Tim Riley for his six years of service and welcomed new board members Jim Rothnie of Jaffrey and Terry Martland of Hancock.

Jeremy Wilson also highlighted numerous milestones at the Harris Center, including new collaborations with the Keene Vet Center and local memory care facilities, the retirement of teacher-naturalist Janet Altobello after 35 years of outstanding teaching and mentorship, and the conservation of more than 26,000 acres in eight local towns. (You can find more highlights from the year in our Annual Report.)

Contemplating Our Relationship to the Land

The afternoon concluded with a memorable performance of A Journey to the White Mountains in Words and Music by writer Howard Mansfield and composer Ben Cosgrove. Best-selling author Sy Montgomery, who introduced them, described how the project emerged from a shared love of landscape — Mansfield’s literary “quest to understand the soul of American places” and Cosgrove’s music, which “expresses how and why a place feels the way it does.” She also noted their many performances of the piece and the New England Emmy awarded to the film version by the SALT Project. Montgomery added, “But none of these performances has meant more to them than today’s opportunity to share their words and music at this Annual Meeting of our beloved Harris Center — which we can largely credit for how our beautiful Monadnock Region looks today.”

The presentation that followed was a compelling blend of spoken word and music, which explored themes of awe and transcendence, expectation, loss, and the fraught connection between art, place, and tourism. In the end, Mansfield and Cosgrove’s performance served as a poignant reminder of the profound impact that both art and nature can have on daily life — a fitting conclusion to an event centered on the Harris Center’s goal of instilling a love of nature and the land within the community.