Greenwich Land Trust is proud to welcome four new members to its Board of Directors -- Greenwich residents Emily Overlock Curry, Kim Gregory, Andy Pitts, and Glenn Hilliard Shaw.
At the Greenwich Land Trust’s Annual Meeting, held last week at the Round Hill Club, GLT President Matt Bostock said that the organization was "indeed fortunate to have this accomplished group of people join our leadership ranks." He also thanked Ken Halcom, Bill King, and Jean H. Witmer, who will retire from the GLT Board of Directors at the end of the year.
Emily Overlock Curry has spent the last few years teaching and learning about plants. She has worked in education at the New York Botanical Garden and Stamford’s Bartlett Arboretum, and currently has a seasonal gardening position at Sleepy Cat Farm in Greenwich. Emily received a B.A. in Anthropology from Columbia University and an MS Ed. in Special and Bilingual Education from Bank Street College. She has taught in public and private schools in New York, Wyoming, and Honduras.
Kim Gregory was raised on a farm in Gatzke, MN and is a lover of plants and animals. She has been dedicated to conservation for many years, through Conservation Corps, Sustainability, and Green Teams with all three of her children at their schools. She is also active on the boards and/or committee affiliations with the following: Audubon Greenwich, Garden Club of America, Greenwich Botanical Center, Greenwich Community Garden, Greenwich Conservation Commission, Greenwich Daffodil Society; Greenwich Garden Club, Greenwich Grown, Greenwich Preservation Trust, Greenwich Riding and Trials Association, Greenwich Tree Conservancy, and others.
Andy Pitts is a corporate lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York City and currently serves as head of the firm’s capital markets practice for North America. He lives in Greenwich with his wife Kirsten; they have two daughters. Andy is on the boards of Middlesex School in Concord, MA and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT. He cares deeply about education, historic preservation and open spaces.
Glenn Hilliard Shaw is Vice Chair and Managing Director of the Hilliard Family Foundation, focused on environmental preservation. Through the Foundation, she has worked to preserve green spaces in South Carolina, her native state, and more recently in Greenwich. She and her husband Hal have four young daughters, two of whom attend Greenwich Academy. Glenn currently serves on the Greenwich Academy Parents Association Board and is the Chair of Sustainability where she leads monthly meetings to plan and promote the greening and environmental sustainability of Greenwich Academy.
“We are honored to recognize these individuals and organizations for their hard work and dedication to the Land Trust,” noted Will Kies, GLT Executive Director. “Our organization relies on the wisdom and generosity of volunteers and community partners to help us fulfill our mission.”
Kies went on to highlight some of the organization’s 2018 achievements, including the launch of the Seed-to-Seed initiative, which propagated over 2,500 plants of 23 native species and restored them to the landscape. The Seed-to-Seed initiative restored three meadows using native seeds and plants and gave more than 80 fourth-graders from the JFK Magnet School in Port Chester, NY an in-depth garden and greenhouse experience.
Kies added that the projects completed this year are helping preserve a “sense of place” in our community. Referencing a 1986 memo written by Kitty Starr, founding member of the Land Trust and former Board President, Kies added, “Land is not expensive. It’s priceless.”
“We are working to preserve the character of our community through conservation so future generations can enjoy what we have all come to love.” He added that GLT’s job is not just to protect land in perpetuity, although that is at the heart of the mission, it is also to take care of it – to steward it.
Echoing that thought, keynote speaker, Amy Blaymore Paterson, executive director of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council, provided a statewide view of land conservation efforts.
“Acquiring the land is the easy part. Managing and caring for it is much more challenging, and GLT does a very good job at that,” she added.
In her work across the state, Paterson has discovered that land is a unifier. “Fortunately, conserving open space is not a partisan issue and there is strong support for what we do.” Connecticut currently has 137 land trusts, the third highest per state in the U.S. behind Massachusetts and California.
“People in our state generally agree that conserving land is a necessity, not a luxury.”
About Greenwich Land Trust
Conserving Land. Connecting Communities.
Greenwich Land Trust is a non-profit organization, working to conserve open space, connect communities with the natural world and inspire the next generation of conservationists. The Land Trust currently preserves and cares for more than 750 acres of woodlands, marshlands, orchards and meadows throughout Greenwich. Learn more by visiting gltrust.org.