2001 Sustainability Awards
Business Partner
Darby Land Lumber and Hardware in Trimble was named Business Partner
of the Year for their help and support of Rural Action during the
year 2000. The award was presented at Rural Action's Annual Meeting
on June 15, 2001.
Darby Land owner Kevin Coey started the business in 1988. He provided
assistance to area residents to help with needed home repairs after
the devastating floods of 1997 and 1998. Coey started helping Rural
Action in 1994, when we began renovations on the Trimble office,
and later was involved in the building's recovery from flood damage
and replacement of its furnace and air-conditioning units.
Sustainable Livelihood Award to lifelong activists and peacekeepers.
Each year Rural Action's Sustainable Livelihood Award is given to
those who exemplify principles of sustainability in life and livelihood.
This year's winners, Pete Hill and Marty Zinn, have shown their commitment
to local and global justice and simple living ever since they settled
in Athens County 25 years ago.
Marty and Pete's involvement here began here when they joined together
with others in 1981 to found Currents, an intentional rural community
in northern Athens County where they have lived ever since. At home,
Pete is Currents' master tinker, devising ingenious water systems
that supply water for the six dwellings on the property, among other "inventions."
Marty helped conceive and found the Worker Owned Network (WON), which
later became ACEnet. She is currently the Appalachian People's Action
Coalition's board president and is board treasurer of the Susan B.
Anthony Memorial Unrest Home (SUBAMUH).
Pete's work for human rights led him to Guatemala and Costa Rica
in the mid-80s to escort those whose lives were threatened by state-sponsored
terrorism. He has also been instrumental in organizing the Ready-Response
Network that brings peacemakers to demonstrations threatening human
rights in the US, particularly those organized by the Ku Klux Klan.
Together and apart, Marty and Pete are superb conflict resolution,
facilitation, and non-violence trainers. They have worked independently
and with the Athens Mediation Service as mediators and have a long
list of work advocating for policy change here and abroad. They have
worked with many of Rural Action's programs and numerous community
groups as trainers and facilitators.
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