Finalists Named for Boston's Cox Conserves Heroes Program, Public Asked to Vote

BOSTON, Sept. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- WFXT Boston 25, in partnership with The Trust for Public Land are recognizing volunteers who are creating, preserving or enhancing shared outdoor spaces. Finalists for Boston's Cox Conserves Heroes program were announced today, and the public is being asked to vote for the winner now through September 25^th. To vote, visit CoxConservesHeroes.com and select the Boston area. A total of $20,000 will be donated to local environmental nonprofits on behalf of the three finalists.

Finalists have already secured a $5,000 donation for their environmental nonprofits of choice and are now competing for an additional $5,000 – bringing the total award to $10,000 for the winner's nonprofit of choice.

Boston's 2017 Cox Conserves Heroes Finalists
Neil Santos has been the mainstay of a multiyear effort to control and eradicate variable milfoil in Lake Pawtuckaway. Two years ago, Santos was the first person to collect a sample of this invasive weed from the lake and has since recruited and trained a team of volunteer snorkelers and divers to assist him with his efforts. Santos is also the liaison to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES), serving as a certified milfoil removal diver and assisting during the removal process. Through direct outreach, Santos informs and educates the lake community and state park visitors on how to identify invasive milfoil and minimize their ability to spread. His nonprofit of choice is Pawtuckaway Lake Improvement Association (PLIA).

Robert Cuddi joined the New England Aquarium's field-based volunteer program - the Live Blue Service Corps - in 2015 and has since been among the organization's most active stewardship volunteers. Cuddi has dedicated hundreds of hours toward conservation efforts in and around Boston. He's been a longtime volunteer educating visitors at the Aquarium, has assisted cold-stunned sea turtles at the Aquarium's Rescue and Rehab center, led volunteer cleanups at Revere Beach, worked with the Boston Water and Sewer Commission to label storm drains to protect them from dumping and much more. Cuddi's projects improve the local environment and build connections between people and their natural surroundings. His nonprofit of choice is the New England Aquarium.

Caleb Blankenship is co-chair of Friends of the Blue Hills Trails Committee and helps the organization recruit, train and manage over 500 volunteers. His dedication to the Blue Hills trails is matched by his ability to work with everyone. Blankenship meets the concerns of the local conservation commissions so volunteers can maintain the trails while also ensuring that new trail volunteers are comfortable. He devotes hundreds of hours each year to scouting trails and identifying their needs. From clearing trails to removing invasive species to erosion mitigation, he is hands-on with multiple improvement projects. Blankenship also ensures that each project has adequate leaders to manage the events as well as completed paperwork, tools and donations. His nonprofit of choice is Friends of the Blue Hills.

Rocky Morrison and Adam Crellin-Sazama are previous recipients of Boston's Cox Conserves Heroes award. 

Cox Conserves Heroes was created through a partnership between The Trust for Public Land and Cox Enterprises, the parent company of WFXT Boston 25, to honor local conservation volunteers. 

The national Cox Conserves Heroes program has donated nearly $800,000 to environmental nonprofits, and nearly 200 volunteers have been honored. Cox Conserves Heroes also takes place in Arizona, California, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Virginia and Washington and is part of the company's national Cox Conserves sustainability program that is celebrating its 10^th anniversary.

For more information, visit CoxConservesHeroes.com or Facebook.

Social Media: #CoxConservesHeroes and #CoxConservesHero

About WFXT Boston 25
WFXT Boston 25 provides local news, weather, sports and entertainment programming to more than 2.4 million households in the Boston television market and covers breaking news from around the area on-air and across all digital platforms including Boston25News.com. 

About Cox Media Group
Cox Media Group is an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company. The company's operations currently include 14 broadcast television stations and one local cable channel, more than 60 radio stations, seven daily newspapers and 11 non-daily publications; and more than 100 digital sites and services, like Rare.us, Clark.com, Dawg Nation, SEC Country, Hookem.com, Mundo Hispanico, Southern Kitchen and All22. Additionally, CMG operates the National Advertising Platform businesses of CoxReps - the country's biggest television rep firm - Gamut, and Videa. CMG currently operates in more than 20 media markets and reaches approximately 52 million Americans weekly, including more than 31 million TV viewers, more than 3.5 million newspaper readers, and nearly 15 million radio listeners.  For more information about Cox Media Group, please check us out online at www.coxmediagroup.com.

About The Trust for Public Land:
The Trust for Public Land creates parks and protects land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come.  Millions of people live within a one-half mile walk of a Trust for Public Land park, garden, or natural area, and millions more visit these sites every year.  To support The Trust for Public Land and share why nature matters to you, visit www.tpl.org.

About Cox Conserves:
Launched in 2007 by Chairman Jim Kennedy, Cox Conserves is Cox Enterprises' national sustainability program. Cox Conserves focuses on reducing waste and energy consumption, as well as conserving water. The program engages each of the company's major subsidiaries (Cox Communications, Cox Automotive and Cox Media Group) and encourages Cox Enterprises' 60,000 employees and their families to engage in eco-friendly practices.

SOURCE Cox Enterprises