Holley Rauen, Southwest Florida RESET board member and secretary, was recently presented the inaugural Holley Rauen Environmental Leadership Award at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Myers (UUCFM). Recognizing significant contributions in the protection and stewardship of the natural environment of Southwest Florida (SWFL), the award pays tribute to the Fort Myers resident whose vision, advocacy and determination exemplify the power and importance of community environmental leadership.

As a beacon of environmental justice in SWFL, UUCFM sponsors this award and invites nominations from the five-county region for 2024 and in coming years to continue recognizing positive environmental leadership in the community. Candidate qualifications will be vetted by UUCFM and the SWFL RESET Center, a consensus-building community that serves as a convener for collaborative actions to reset human impacts on global warming and ecological systems through transformative education.

The award will be given annually to a citizen (groups not eligible) of SWFL that has led a successful resource conservation effort which benefits SWFL and its residents directly; acted as a community catalyst for programs, initiatives or ventures that demonstrate a commitment to the future of the Earth and its biodiversity; and anyone that has become a model for future leaders in business and education or has been an exemplary citizen or policy maker that has implemented decisions, although they may entail risks, to help the community take the next step toward environmental sustainability.

Rauen, a founding member of the SWFL RESET Center, says, “I am deeply honored to have this award named after me. I hope it inspires many individuals to protect and defend our precious waters and land.” She previously served on the Happehatchee board of directors, a nonprofit Corkscrew Road eco-spiritual retreat center founded by environmental warrior Ellen Peterson (1923-2011). The five-acre property along the Estero River has been transferred in ownership to the village of Estero to be used as a park.

Rauen also served on the board of the Environmental and Peace Education Center and co-founded a chapter of the Pachamama Alliance in Lee and Collier counties. The nonprofit global community works to create a sustainable future that works for all through their transformational programs and travel. She also helped establish the first Peace Day in the Park celebration in Fort Myers, and later became a waterkeeper ranger for Calusa Waterkeeper.

Known for leading the first of many prayer blessing ceremonies for protecting water that began with Betty Osceloa, a Native American Everglades educator who is a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida from the Panther Clan. Rauen also served as an organizer and support person for Osceola in leading her prayer walks around Lake Okeechobee. Passionate about protecting the water, she joined Fort Myers resident John Heim in his Southwest Florida Clean Water Movement. Rauen’s latest activity was tending raised beds at the Bill Brewer UUCFM community gardens, which donated produce to Cultivate Abundance, a faith-based organization addressing food insecurity and other livelihood challenges in low-income, migrant farmworker communities of SWFL Florida and beyond.

Recalling a memory from her 16 years in Ft. Myers as an environmental and peace activist, Rauen says, “I moved here from California on the day the U.S. bombed Iraq. I looked around for a group of activists and found no one, so I made a ‘Don’t bomb Iraq’ sign and went to city hall to sit on the steps alone. I eventually turned my attention to protecting the water as I lived along the Caloosahatchee River. As a worship associate for UUCFM for 10 years, I wove nature into my sermons and reflections, trying to help congregants fall in love with nature. The Pachamama Alliance was a huge influence. Their game-changer and drawdown intensives wove everything together for me and created my global mindset and higher activism consciousness than I'd ever experienced before.”