Three SU Community Members Receive 'Light of Literacy' Honors

SALISBURY, MD---Three Salisbury University community members recently were honored for their commitment to reading, writing and education as recipients of this year’s Friends of Wicomico Public Libraries Light of Literacy awards.

SU’s Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, represented by its executive director, Dr. Kristin Sullivan, earned the Organization Luminary accolade. The award honored the museum for its preservation of local heritage through exhibits and programs including its annual student art show, designed to teach future generations about the importance of safeguarding and enhancing the environment.

Recent SU graduate Harrison Leon of Paoli, PA, received the Student Luminary award. A conflict analysis and dispute resolution major in SU’s Glenda Chatham and Robert G. Clarke Honors College and Undergraduate Research Fellow in the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, he served as the inaugural editor of the University’s undergraduate research magazine, Laridae.

In his role as a Presidential Citizen Scholar through the University’s Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement (PACE), he also prepared a community needs assessment currently being used by the City of Salisbury to inform its programming for the planned Newtown Community Center.

As the student representative of SU’s Media Literacy Institute, Leon was actively involved in the initiative to provide educators with methods and ideas for teaching media literacy. In addition, as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-Bosserman Fellow, he worked as a speech writer and research student at UN headquarters in Paris.

The Friends of Wicomico Public Libraries’ 2020 Liz Bellavance Legacy Award went to Marie Cavallaro, SU professor emerita of art. Cavallaro was honored for her co-creation (with SU Art Department colleague John Cleary) of and continued involvement in the Cavallaro and Cleary Visual Art Foundation.

Since 2001, the non-profit organization has awarded some $120,000 to more than 150 local high school students interested in pursuing an education in art. Cavallaro also is the author of two children’s books: Johnny Nichols: I Want to Play Baseball and Johnny Nichols: Special Gifts, Special Friends.

The award is named in memory of local activist Elizabeth Bellavance, former SU Career Services counselor and wife of the University’s sixth president, Dr. Thomas Bellavance.

For more information about the awards, visit the Light of Literacy website. For more information about SU, visit the SU website.