River Valley Market Celebrates Cooperatives at Strawberry Ice Cream Social

Jon A. Reske
Vice President, Marketing
413-256-5507
jreske@umassfive.org

Northampton, MA – River Valley Market is proud to announce the 2012 winners of the Austin Miller Co-op Hero Awards. The Austin Miller awards consist of three winners – one business, one individual, and one non-profit.

Lynn Benander, the Founder and President of Coop Power and the new Northeast Biodiesel, was the Individual honoree. Lynn is an experienced educator, facilitator, and manager who has a unique skill of bringing people together and a passion for addressing the challenges of sustainability and justice with multi-class, multi-racial movement building.

Non-profit Seeds of Solidarity, a community organization and farm based out of Orange, MA was the honoree for the non-profit category. They were created in the spirit of New Alchemy and their innovative programs are helping to revitalize the region.

The final recipient, UMassFive College Federal Credit Union, with branches located in Northampton, Hadley and UMass-Amherst was the highlighted business in the Pioneer Valley. As a non-profit financial cooperative established in 1967, UMassFive has 28,000 member-owners. According to Jon Reske, VP of Marketing at UMassFive, “It’s an honor to receive this award along with those of such accomplishment for the area. We take our commitment to supporting fellow cooperatives very seriously, and it’s wonderful to receive this recognition.”

All three recipients were honored at the award ceremony, during the Ice Cream Social at River Valley Market on June 28th.

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