Karl Wagener To Speak At Rockfall Foundation Meeting

From Claire E. Rusowicz, Executive Director, The Rockfall Foundation
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The Rockfall Foundation will recognize Karl J. Wagener, Executive Director of the CT Council on Environmental Quality, for his lifetime of service at the foundation’s 2011 Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony on November 17, starting at 6:00 p.m. at the deKoven House Community Center, Middletown.

Wagener (photo at right) featured speaker for the event, will be given Rockfall’s Certificate of Honor in recognition of his lifelong concern for the environment, and achievements as Executive Director of Connecticut’s Council on Environmental Quality for more than 25 years. Before joining the CEQ, he was director of the Connecticut Audubon Society’s Environmental Center in Hartford and served as their lobbyist at the State Capitol. In 1995, Wagener was selected for an Eisenhower Fellowship and spent several weeks in the Czech Republic and Slovakia exchanging information with environmental officials and advocates in those countries.

The foundation will also present two Certificates of Appreciation that evening. Margot Burns, Regional Planner for the CT River Estuary Regional Planning, is being recognized for organizing and providing leadership for the Lower CT River and Coastal Region Land Trust Exchange. The Exchange was organized in 2009 to create a stronger connection between the local, regional conservation community, and the Regional, State, and Federal land use planning process, and to enhance collaboration between land trusts and other local conservation organizations.

Ken Kruse, on staff of Middletown’s Russell Library, will be recognized for founding and leading the library’s Green Children program. Meeting twice a month for the past eight years, the program has engaged hundreds of children in environmental education programs including gardening, composting and recycling.

The evening will feature project displays by the foundation’s 2011 grant recipients and a reception with light refreshments.

For information, call the Rockfall office at (860)347-0340, or e-mail .

The Rockfall Foundation supports environmental education, conservation programs and planning initiatives in Middlesex County. Established in 1935, it is one of Connecticut’s oldest environmental organizations whose mission is to be a catalyst-- bringing people together and supporting organizations to conserve and enhance the county’s natural environment. Rockfall awards grants each year to organizations, schools and municipalities, and continues to hold and manage open space property in the county.