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Every year at the Annual Meeting of the Rural & Migrant
Ministry Board, awards are given in honor of people who have
been an inspiration and/or provided the ministry with
outstanding volunteer service.
The Clotter-Jubilee Award
The Clotter-Jubilee Award is given
to the individual who has worked tirelessly in the spirit
of Carlos Clotter to enhance the rights and hope of
farmworkers.
Carlos was a Garifuno (Afro-Carib)
farmworker from Honduras who was committed to the belief
that the farmworkers could join together and create their
own destiny. Carlos was a moving force in organizing
farmworkers in the midst of the onion fields and apple orchards
of New York and a founder of Cooperativa.
In the Book of Leviticus we are told of
the year of Jubilee. This year of the Jubilee is a remembrance
of justice, of wholeness. It is a time to pause and remember
that we are all a part of one community, and to take extra
steps to reach out to include those who have been
disenfranchised.
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Aspacio Alcantara leader of CITA
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Previous Award Winners:
- Milburgo Ramirez Flores
- Alberto Calderon
- Diego Low
- Aspacio Alcantara
- Adrian Ramirez
- Charlotte Sibley
- Senator Olga Mendez
- Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan
- Demi McGuire
- Linda Lucas Browning
- Carolyn Mow
- Theresa Dillon
- Jill McGee
- Salvador Soli
- Herb Engman
The Ida Wells Award
The Ida Wells Award is presented
to an individual who demonstrates a longstanding
commitment to be a drum major for justice in our community.
In 1884 Ida Wells, a small town school
teacher in Tennessee, was asked to leave the Ladies Coach of
a train bound for Memphis; she refused and was forcibly removed
from the train. Ida promptly hired an attorney and won a
decision against the railroad. For the rest of her life Ida
continued to seek the fair and equal inclusion of Black Americans
into American life. The true struggle for justice requires
a confrontation with those systems and structures that deny the
full humanity of ourselves, our brothers and our sisters. Often
those who carry out this quest are ridiculed and trivialized.
Yet without this quest for justice, we all suffer.
Previous Winners of the Ida Wells Award:
- Ruth Faircloth
- Donna Robinson
- Unity Youth Group
- Betty Monroe
- Co-Ministry Program Comm. of the Presbytery of Hudson River
- Kay Embrey
- Brian O’Shaughnessy
- Archdeacon Michael Kendal
- Betsaida Alcantara
- The Dyson Foundation
- Jim Schmidt
The Barnett Award
is given in memory of Richard Barnett,
a layperson from Kingston, who was one of the original inspirers
and organizers of a ministry that served disenfranchised rural
people and migrant farmworkers in the region. It was because of
Dick’s unfailing commitment and energy that all of us now
have the opportunity to participate in this tremendous ecumenical
ministry known as the Rural & Migrant Ministry.
Previous Award Winners:
- Kathryn Moran
- Charles Ross
- Mary Richards
- Margaret Haney
- Martha Louise Harkness
- Mary Wibiralske
- Jane Konitz
- Mary Scriver
- Susan Blase
- Jerry Hoerness
- Ronald Garcia
- Clifford Konitz
- Buck Close
- Barbara Deming
- Carlos Lantis
- Linda Gluck
- Everett Hobart
- Millie Johnson
The Alan Edward Weeks Award
was created in 2000 to honor
the work of Alan Weeks, the Ministry’s first
Youth Empowerment Coordinator.
Alan’s tireless efforts on
behalf of rural and migrant youth opened doors of opportunity,
encouraged development of gifts and talents, and led the young
people to become leaders today.
Previous Award Winners:
- Chakera McIntosh
- Sarah Cruz
- Chris O’Connell
- Diana Vasquez
- Betsaida Alcantara
- Laura Garcia
- Pedro Cruz
- Moshiena Faircloth Ê
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