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The Martha Hatch Award is the Friends of the Bosque del Apache NWR's highest honor and is given to the person who best exhibits the characteristics of an ideal volunteer and who has made outstanding volunteer contributions to the Friends and the Refuge. The Award is named after Martha Hatch, who was the Friends first newsletter editor, and who gave 6 years of dedicated service in that capacity" (see Martha Hatch Award for information and guidelines)

FRIENDS OF THE BOSQUE DEL APACHE 2011 MARTHA HATCH AWARD
Tom Sizemore – 2011 recipient

Sandy Seth Martha Hatch Award 2010
Friends of the Bosque del Apache president Lise Spargo presents
2011 Martha Hatch Award to Tom Sizemore

Santa Fe entrepreneur Thomas G. Sizemore

Bosque del Apache Friends Present Annual Martha Hatch Award The Martha Hatch Award for, given annually by Friends of the Bosque del Apache to the individual who has made outstanding contributions to the Friends and the renowned wildlife refuge south of Socorro, was awarded Nov. 17, 2011 during the 24th annual Bosque del Apache Festival of the Cranes to Santa Fe entrepreneur Thomas G. Sizemore. The award was presented at the Friends' annual dinner at New Mexico Tech University in Socorro.
While serving as volunteer Treasurer from 2006-2009, Sizemore developed a 100-page financial manual detailing the policies and procedures to keep the Friends' bookkeeping and reporting in line with current "generally accepted accounting practices" and newly enacted legislation for non-profits. Additional requirements became applicable during Sizemore's tenure, as annual revenue of the Friends approached half a million dollars.
Sizemore is the proprietor of Global Technology Applications, Ltd., a Santa Fe firm specializing in domestic and international management and consulting, which he established in 1999 after retiring as vice president of Eat elle, a private, non-profit research company in Columbus, OH. He is a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps., from which he retired as a major.


FRIENDS OF THE BOSQUE DEL APACHE 2010 MARTHA HATCH AWARD
Sandy Seth – 2010 recipient

Sandy Seth Martha Hatch Award 2010
Friends of the Bosque del Apache president Paul White presents
2010 Martha Hatch Award to Taos-area artist/activist Sandy Seth.

Bosque 'Friends' Honors Taos-area Heritage Activist


Ranchos de Taos wildlife photographer, ecology activist and published author Sandy Seth has added another award to a long list of honors she has received. Friends of the Bosque del Apache awarded its highest honor, the Martha Hatch Award, to Seth at the recently completed Festival of the Cranes. As webmaster for the Friends, Seth is the online voice for the renowned Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge south of Socorro.

Seth, a second-generation New Mexican and daughter of parents who loved the Refuge, is known in the Taos area for her advocacy of building with native materials, and for five houses in the Territorial and Pueblo styles which she hand-built from adobe. Her award-winning wildlife photographs are represented by the Carson House Shop and at BirdSongGallery.com, an on-line gallery which she operates with artist-partner Valerie Graves.

The Martha Hatch Award, given annually "to the person who best exhibits the characteristics of an ideal volunteer and who has made outstanding volunteer contributions to the Friends and the Refuge", was presented to Seth in a ceremony at the recently completed 23rd annual Bosque del Apache Festival of the Cranes.

Anyone who has visited the Friends' website FriendsoftheBosque.org which Seth designed and maintains as webmaster will understand why this award is richly deserved. Seth also left an indelible mark on the just-completed 2010 Festival of the Cranes: her photograph titled "Sandhill Crane Pair- Reflections" was chosen as the Festival's theme. The image was reproduced on banners lining the main street in Socorro, and on Festival literature and merchandise. Finally, Seth posts a Day-by-Day Diary of Festival and refuge happenings on festivalofthecranes.blogspot.com which she created.

In presenting the Martha Hatch award, Friends' president Paul White said: "…our honoree has loved everything about the Bosque ever since she first laid eyes on it…Sandy, it seems as if every time I turn around, I am discovering something else you have done in support of the refuge and the Friends." White followed this introduction with 14 concrete professional and financial contributions Seth has made since she became a member of the Friends in 2003.

Seth has had numerous one person and group shows at galleries and museums through the country. She was an Artist in Residence at Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA, and her work was selected for the Smithsonian Institution's Renwick Gallery Nationwide Juried Show and the Museum of New Mexico Biennial Juried Show, among others. Her many photograph awards include winning Best Photograph at the Taos Fall Arts Festival Invitational Show.

Before turning to photography, Seth pursued an interest in regional architecture and native materials in building. She co-authored Adobe! Homes and Interiors of Taos, Santa Fe and the Southwest, was featured in Janice Goldfanks' book Making Ourselves at Home: Women Builders and Designers, and was included in Stand Against the Wind, a Biographical Sketchbook of New Mexico Women by Maryann Abkemeier and Laura Robertson. Seth has lectured on Southwest art and architecture at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, and was a tour leader for the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art Forum.

Seth says she views her wildlife art not as a business, but as way to call attention to the to value of all life, especially birds and wildlife and the habitat they rely on for survival.

Seth derives her passion for New Mexico's natural resources and traditions from a family with deep roots in New Mexico. Her father, Judge Oliver Seth, was for 34 years a member of the Federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, retiring as its Chief Justice. Her mother was founder of the pioneering Canyon Road Art Gallery, one of the first of Santa Fe's illustrious showplaces for regional artists.


 


FRIENDS OF THE BOSQUE DEL APACHE 2009 MARTHA HATCH AWARD
Barbara DuBois, 2009 recipient

A highlight of the Friends Dinner in 2009, held during the Festival of the Cranes, was the Martha Hatch Award presentation. Each year the award goes to the person who best exhibits the characteristics of an ideal volunteer, and who has made outstanding volunteer contributions to the Friends and the Refuge.
This year we honored Barbara DuBois, pictured above with Paul White, Friends's president and Betty White.
Barbara is a tireless worker at Friends meetings and other events. Her cheerful smile has welcomed hundreds of visitors to Festivals over the years and she persuaded most of them to join the Friends. Her spirit and her example are worthy models for us all. Congratulations and thank you, Barbara.
ALEXANDER'S BIRDS

Turning, turning, snow geese make a design
like a kaleidoscope,
Greek for "sight of beautiful form."
Not turning, they line up
like a string of pearls in the turquoise sky.
Alexander had his seers
read bird behavior
and led his life and sometimes
saved it thereby.
Can we follow him and lead our lives
according to bird flight?
What meaning can we latter-day cynics
read in the graceful motions
of these incandescent shapes?
Only the lesson that we may cherish
beauty for its own sake.
Some things need not be good for something.

Barbara DuBois



FRIENDS OF THE BOSQUE DEL APACHE 2008 MARTHA HATCH AWARD
Jon Morrison – 2008 recipient



The Martha Hatch award was established by the Friends of the Bosque del Apache NWR in 1998 to be issued each year to an individual who has provided exemplary service to the Friends of the Bosque del Apache NWR and to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.  The award was named in honor of its first recipient, who for many years produced a newsletter for the refuge, and which after formation in 1993 of the Friends of the Bosque del Apache, became the organization’s newsletter.

Summary of Jon Morrison’s service to Friends of the Bosque del Apache NWR:

Jon Morrison was President of the Friends of the Bosque del Apache from July, 2005 until January, 2008; Vice President from January, 2002 until July, 2005.  His major initiatives for the Friends of the Bosque:
Sponsored the Friends classroom environmental education program, (presently the Mapping the Rio Watershed Education Program with classrooms in the Socorro Elementary Schools.
Initiated purchase by Friends of the Bosque del Apache’s of Chupadera Peak, which was donated to the Bosque del Apache NWR last year for inclusion in the Chupadera Wilderness.
Oversaw construction of the Christina Ann Lannan Educational Annex the the refuge visitor center in 2006 with $600,000 raised by Friends of the Bosque del Apache.
In 2007, initiated the first annual RioFest Environmental Film Festival in Socorro under sponsorship of the Friends of the Bosque del Apache.
Editor of Friends of the Bosque del Apache Newsletter July, 2002 until 2007.
In 2008, established an annual Costa Rica Birding Expedition as a combine fundraiser for Friends of the Bosque del Apache and for a conservation organization in Costa Rica to be selected each year.

Previous recipients of the Martha Hatch Award:
Martha Hatch
Roy Poole
Phil Norton
John Bertrand
Robert Kruidenier
Jerry Goffe
Betty Davis
Steve Green
Park Borgeson
Percy Deal

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