Kendalls, Lanham honored by Friends of the Center

The Friends of the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability at SIUE  honored the late John Kendall and his wife Kay, also deceased, with the Sustainability Leadership Award at their annual awards dinner, March 5th. The Kendalls helped create the Watershed Nature Center in Edwardsville.

“The Watershed tells two stories,” said Julie Conley, president of the Nature Preserve Foundation. “I think this is what they gave the community: the ability for humans to make good decisions for the land — and the power of ‘community’ working together. And those two stories continue to resonate with the Watershed. That’s what they started with, and that’s what continues to resonate.”

Conley is also horticulturist for Facilities Management at SIUE.

The Kendalls were instrumental in the volunteer effort that founded the center in 1991 and resulted in its opening four years later. The Watershed Nature Center is owned by the City of Edwardsville and is managed by the Nature Preserve Foundation, and is supported by a local community of volunteers and sponsors. Within the city of Edwardsville, the nature preserve is part of the Cahokia Creek watershed, and is comprised of over 40 acres of wetlands, prairies, and upland and lowland forests.

John Kendall passed in January at the age of 93.  The music professor emeritus is the founder of the internationally known Suzuki String Program at SIUE and one of the earliest proponents of the Suzuki String Teaching Method in the United States.

Spiritual Leadership Award
Roy Lanham was awarded the Spiritual Leadership Award for his work with student service projects in Haiti. Lanham has, for 19 years, lead student service projects involving a variety of interventions including installing clean water systems, reforestation and economic development projects. He is the campus Catholic minister at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, ILL.

The 8th annual Leadership Awards dinner was held in the LeClaire Room on the N.O. Nelson Campus  of Lewis and Clark Community College. The traveling group of Suzuki Strings performed for the Friends, in honor of their deceased founder.

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