Cape Ann Forum

The Cape Ann Forum seeks to engage the public in conversations about the rapidly changing social and political environment in which we live and what we can do to make it a better, safer place. We present free, public forums that bring experience and perspectives not often represented in the mainstream media and that give voice to citizens whose concerns, hopes and fears are too often lost or ignored.

GLOUCESTER HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR WINS 2010/2011 “AWARENESS” AWARD

Gloucester High School senior Elizabeth MacDougal received the Cape Ann Forum’s sixth annual international awareness award at City Hall on Sunday, May 15, 2011 in recognition of her efforts to bring attention to global environmental and human rights issues among her peers. The $500 award was announced by Forum chair Dan Connell.

MacDougal is the president of the Gloucester High School Environmental Club and has spearheaded the vitalization of the Amnesty International Chapter there, helping to transform it into a local Human Rights Club. She is also the top student in her graduating class and has been on the GHS honor roll throughout her four years there.

“Elizabeth MacDougal is someone we can all be proud of,” said Connell. “And so is the high school, which provided a place for her to thrive and grow despite the ever-tightening budgets and the intensifying pressures on the dedicated people who teach there.”

Under MacDougal’s leadership the Environmental Club organized clean-up efforts in Gloucester, participated in international environmental awareness events, planted raised beds with a district elementary school, researched sustainable energy for the high school, collaborated with the Rockport High School Green Team, and expanded its membership.

Meanwhile, MacDougal helped organize the new Human Rights Club club's first initiative: funding a microloan through the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization Kiva, which provides loans averaging under $400 to small businesses in 60 countries in what it calls people-to-people lending and claims a repayment rate of almost 99 percent. Kiva was named one of Oprah's “Favorite Things” in 2010.

Social studies teacher Rich Francis, who nominated MacDougal for the Forum’s award, described her as “organized, enthusiastic, and inspiring. Her approach is to empower peers by distributing leadership and by providing guidance and support. She has helped lay a strong foundation for the future of both clubs.” The award was announced during the Cape Ann Forum’s last event of the 2010/2011 season, its tenth.

2009/2010 ANNUAL HIGH SCHOOL AWARD
Gloucester High School senior Terri Moody received the Cape Ann Forum’s annual international awareness award at City Hall on May 16, 2010 in recognition of her efforts to bring attention to the global environmental crisis among her peers at the high school. The $500 award was presented by Forum chair Dan Connell.

Terri’s first initiative this school year was to expand the recycling program into the classrooms that were not yet participating, according to the GHS teachers who recommended her for the award. When no school or city funds were available to purchase additional recycling bins, the Environmental Club under Terri's leadership organized fundraisers, purchased the bins themselves, and then monitored their use through the school year.

In October Terri led a "350" climate change awareness campaign in the high school and participated in the "350" protest at the Man at the Wheel. The global campaign's goal is to reduce levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million. In March she led an Earth Hour campaign at the high school and with Environmental Club members wrote a letter to the editor of the Gloucester Daily Times encouraging community members to participate. She is now organizing a bike-to-work/bike-to-school event for late May.

2008/2009 HIGH SCHOOL AWARD
On May 3, 2009, the Cape Ann Forum announced its annual International Awareness Award to a graduating Gloucester High School senior who has made an outstanding contribution to increasing awareness of international issues and events to her/ his peers. Only this year, there were four awardees.

Normally the award is $500 for one recipient, but since GHS teachers had recommended four exceptional candidates this year who had worked as a team on a wide range of social issues since middle school, the Forum decided to increase the award and share it among them. As a result, each received $200. The award winners were Britta Akerly, Emily Castro, Isabel Pett, and Chloe Rideout, cited for their unstinting volunteer work in the school’s Amnesty International chapter, the Model UN, the Environmental Club, and more.

Over the past four years, Cape Ann Forum organizers have been developing a relationship with the Gloucester High School out of a concern that the next generation develop the tools and the conceptual framework to grasp what’s going on in the world they will inherit, why that’s important, and what they can do to improve on what we’re leaving them. Forum chair Dan Connell, who teaches journalism and African politics at Simmons College in Boston, has done several assemblies at the high school on his experiences abroad, and the organization is assembling an archive of recordings of previous forums to donate to the school.

The Forum, founded in 2001, has been setting aside funds to endow the International Awareness award in perpetuity. Students are selected with the help of GHS social studies teachers.