Grants awarded for land-conscious people, groups

NEWLIN » It was an afternoon to appreciate the earth last Thursday as environmentally-minded individuals gathered to receive the 2017 Dockstader Awards at ChesLen Preserve on Cannery Road.

These awards are presented annually by Southeastern Chester County Refuse Authority in honor of the founder of its London Grove landfill, the late Kneale Dockstader. The landfill serves 24 boroughs and townships in southern Chester County.

Through the years it has operated so successfully that it has supported a foundation created in Dockstader’s honor. The foundation funds the annual gifts, Foundation Chairman Roger Legg said.

As an introduction to the ceremony, Legg described Dockstader as a brilliant man who dedicated his later life to the establishment of the development and operation of the landfill. Since he worked tirelessly as a volunteer in the endeavor, his board wanted to pay him. Since he refused, Legg said, he accepted a charity in his name. This charity began in 2005 and has been giving awards to organizations and people who carry on projects to save the en-

vironment.

In addition to the awards for projects like storm water management, nature trails and invasive plant control, the foundation gives four scholarships to local graduating high school seniors and two to students at Lincoln University.

This year’s high School recipients were Jacqueline Mower from Oxford, Luther Coe from Avon Grove, Luke Beson from Kennett and Grace McNeill from Unionville.

Legg noted that a previous award winner, Meghan Shea, a former Unionville High School valedictorian who also earned a Dockstader Award, went on to be a Rhodes Scholar out of Stanford University. She designed to remove E. coli bacteria from water and at Stanford, as a student of environmental systems engineering, she has spent various terms studying the ocean in Hawaii and aboard a ship that sailed from Tahiti.

The site of the presentation ceremony, ChesLen Preserve is one of several preserved lands owned and operated by the Natural Lands Trust. It contains 1,263 acres of preserved land open to the public for hiking, birding and other outdoor activities.

ChesLen also hold its popular Friday Night Lights, this year on July 14, which is an outdoor celebration of music, craft beer and food trucks.

For more information on that go to natlands.org/ events.

To contact the Daily Local News, email news@ dailylocal.com, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter: www. twitter.com/wcdailylocal, www.facebook.com/dailylocalnew

CHRIS BARBER — DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Recipients of Kneale Dockstader grants line up with their check presentations at ChesLen reserve on Thursday.

CHRIS BARBER — DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Luther Coe and Grace McNeill were awarded scholarships at the Kneale Dockstader grant presentation event on Thursday. Also earning scholarships, but not present, were Jacqueline Mower from Oxford and Luke Beson from Kennett.