The Rachel Somers Grant Social Action Award recognizes the contributions of outstanding individuals who have helped make the North Country a more human and progressive community. The award this year recognizes the contributions of Holly Chambers. Additionally, the church is presenting for the first time a Rachel Grant Youth Social Action Award to recognize important activist work of young people; this year the award goes to Alex Calk. North Country friends and neighbors are warmly invited to join the UU congregation in celebrating the contributions of both women on Sunday, June 30, at 10:30 a.m.
Holly Chambers is being recognized for the leadership she has provided to Cinema 10 for 33 years. Cinema 10 has had a significant impact over this period, bringing in each year twenty important independent and foreign films to the North Country. Holly and the Cinema 10 Board have worked to ensure that the films are socially relevant, politically provocative and expressive of the diversity of our larger world community. Often she has organized discussions following the films, sometimes with the film makers and sometimes with community representatives, reflecting on connections between issues raised in the films and our local context. Holly has also provided leadership to such organizations as Seedcorn, Potsdam Food Coop, and the United University Professions as well as many other groups.
Alex Calk is a junior at Little River School. In her first year there, she has become an important activist and spokesperson around environmental issues, notably climate change. In November, 2018, she spoke at a rally for Our Children’s Trust in the Canton Village Park. This year she organized the Green Club at Little River School and helped facilitate and publicize the Monthly Climate Vigil in that Park. She speaks at the vigils, provides interviews to the media, and recently was a featured guest on “North Country Matters.” Alex has also spoken to: the Canton High School Green Club, Commons College (SLU), Resist SLU, Environmental Action Organization (SLU). Alex arrived in Canton in 2018 with a personal background in social justice work. She has participated in a ten-day mission trip to South Africa, working in an orphanage in Kwa Zulu Natal, in an urban summer program for disadvantaged students and in a service project providing meals for New York City children.