The Grand Traverse Conservation District's (GTCD) Land Management Services Team was honored with a couple of awards recently. It caps off a great 2009 field season.

Steve Largent, Director of Land Management Services, was awarded the 2009 Frank Purvis Stewardship Award. This award was established in 1983 and honors "those individuals who have demonstrated a high degree of dedication to sound community planning ideals and volunteerism." The award is named after Frank Purvis, the first chairman of the Traverse Bay Regional Planning Commission, who had an impact on community planning in the Grand Traverse area. Steve was selected for it because of his life long commitment to the conservation and protection of the Boardman River.

The GTCD is one of 10 different organizations selected to receive the 2009 Michigan WORKS! Grand Traverse County Earn and Learn Worksite Recognition Service Award for the "diversity of experience, learning opportunities, work place and employability skills that were developed by our participants and the benefits the work projects provided to the community." The Earn and Learn Program is targeted at economically disadvantaged young people, 16-24 years old, and gives them the opportunity to learn new job skills while serving their community. Participants worked in one of the 15 roving work crews this summer throughout the ten-county region at public and private nonprofit agencies. Watch a video documenting some of the work done this summer with the Earn and Learn Program below.

Congratulations to the LMS team on yet another great year!

Tags: awards, frank purvis award, land management services, lms, michigan works, public land management, steve largent