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For Immediate Release: May 19, 2011

Save the Manatee Club’s Board of Director’s Co-Chair Helen Spivey, widely known as “The Manatee Lady” in her hometown of Crystal River, Florida, recently received two prestigious honors for her outstanding conservation contributions.

On May 10th, at the Marriott Century Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Spivey received the Regional Director’s Conservation Award from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Southeast Region (Service), along with other members of the Three Sisters Acquisition Team, including the Club’s Executive Director, Patrick Rose. The award is presented annually to partners who have made extraordinary contributions to the conservation of natural resources. Spivey, Rose, and other conservation partners received the award because they had helped to realize the public acquisition of The Three Sisters Springs property, which abuts two manatee sanctuaries, saving it from future development.

Spivey, who also celebrated her 83rd birthday on May 10th, was further honored by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on the same day in the U.S. House of Representatives. She recognized Spivey’s decades of being a leader in the protection of Florida’s ecosystems and the endangered Florida manatee. Wasserman Schultz proclaimed that through Helen’s leadership, the Three Sisters 57-acre property “was acquired by the Service to forever preserve this ecologically important habitat.”

See more information on the Regional Director’s Conservation Awards

Read the speech recognizing Helen Spivey by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the Congressional Record.

Get additional information on Three Sisters Springs

To interview Helen Spivey or Patrick Rose, see contact information above.

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