Socially Conscious Farmer
Leah Penniman
Penniman is a national leader in the movements to improve healthy food access in black and brown communities and to empower black and brown people through land ownership and dignified farming. In the past year, her voice and mission have been magnified: Her book, Farming While Black, was published, and she won various regional and national awards, including Hudson Valley’s Women in Business and a James Beard Leadership Award (one of only five winners in the nation).
Grafton, www.soulfirefarm.org
Autism Awareness Collaboration
Village of Rhinebeck & Anderson Center for Autism
The Staatsburg-based Anderson Center for Autism — which works to optimize the quality of life for people with autism by offering educational, vocational, and residential services — recently helped the village of Rhinebeck gain designation as the first Autism Supportive Community in the region. Anderson and Rhinebeck secured commitments from more than 50 businesses and organizations who pledged to “Do1Thing” to be more accommodating to people with autism and their families. Here’s hoping more towns and villages follow suit.
Rhinebeck and Stattsburg, www.andersoncenterforautism.org
Community Builder
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh
Community is made of relationships: shared experiences, shared goals, and shared spaces. Habitat brings people together to construct houses, homes, and neighborhoods, building community in the process. To date, almost 100 families have earned a dignified home and an attractive Newburgh neighborhood through Habitat’s model of sweat equity.
Newburgh, www.habitatnewburgh.org
Community Center
Newburgh Armory Unity Center
By partnering with organizations like the Newburgh City School District, the City of Newburgh Police Department, and SUNY New Paltz, the Newburgh Armory has succeeded in bringing numerous programs and services to residents. Among the programs hosted at the Armory are ESOL classes, a criminal justice workshop for middle schoolers, and pick-up soccer for adults, youth, and women.
Newburgh, www.newburgharmory.org
Community-Minded Realtor
Richard Ellis
Since 2016, Richard Ellis’ real estate brokerage firm — Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty and Ellis Realty Commercial in Nyack — has been collaborating with the Edward Hopper Museum & Study Center to raise funds for arts education programs in Rockland, Westchester, and Orange county schools. To date, their annual gala has raised more than $80,000. Along with other diverse local community efforts, his team also raised $6,000 last year to build a hurricane-resistant house for a family in Labodrie, Haiti.
Nyack, www.ellissothebysrealty.com
Networking for Newbies
Hudson Valley Young Professionals
Now with more than 800 members, Hudson Valley Young Professionals gives members the opportunity to hone professional skills, participate in charity events, and broaden their social circles. Best of all? Membership isn’t limited to age; anyone who is early to mid-level in their career can join.
Poughkeepsie, www.dcrcoc.org/HVYP
Resource for Future Filmmakers
Stockade Works
Beth Davenport and actress Mary Stuart Masterson set out in 2016 to create an ecosystem for film and TV production in the Hudson Valley. With workforce development programs — crew boot camps, workshops, apprenticeships, and on-the-job training — the nonprofit has trained more than 80 local residents and referred graduates to more than 60 paid production projects in the region. Their goal is to train 100 crewmembers a year and create more than 2,000 jobs by 2021.
Kingston, www.stockadeworks.org
River Educators
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Inc.
Pete Seeger and friends built the 106-foot sloop Clearwater that set sail in 1969 to raise awareness of Hudson River pollution — and lo, these many decades later, a team of educators and volunteers are still at it, sailing from New York City to Albany to teach school groups, event attendees, and the general public about environmental health, biodiversity, and life on the water.
Beacon, www.clearwater.org
Zero Waste Service and Educators
Zero to Go
Zero to Go’s trio of colorful barrels can be spotted at events around the Valley alongside an approachable composting educator. Through managing waste at events large and small, educating the public, and collecting private homeowner scraps (via bicycle) they have diverted many dozens of tons of would-be trash — banana peels, popsicle sticks, brown paper bags — into either the recycling stream or their stock of rich, nutritious compost that benefits local farms.
Beacon, www.zerotogo.org
Readers’ Picks
Artist
Ian Flanigan
Saugerties
Author
Linda Zimmerman
Chester
Band
Emish
Warwick
Celebrity
Paul Rudd
Rhinebeck
DJ
Christopher James DJs
Poughkeepsie, Pleasant Valley
Find them on Facebook
Entrepreneur
Rhianna Mirabello
Poughkeepsie
High School Teacher
Catherine Ciocchi
Wappingers Falls
Politician
(TIE)
Antonio Delgado
Hudson, Kingston
Marcus Molinaro
Poughkeepsie
Radio Personality
Simon WRRV
Poughkeepsie
Singer/Vocalist
Ian Flanigan
Saugerties
