Courtesy photo.
SANTA BARBARA — Mary Maranville, Students for Eco Education in Agriculture (SEEAG) founder and CEO, was named as one of the Santa Barbara County Commission for Women (CFW) 2022 service award honorees. Fourth District Santa Barbara Supervisor Bob Nelson nominated Maranville. The service awards were announced at the April 19 Board of Supervisors meeting.
The Santa Barbara County Commission for Women established the Commission for Women Service Awards to recognize and honor the achievements of women and the organizations they represent for their commitment and service to Santa Barbara County. One recipient and their organization are honored by each of the five Santa Barbara Supervisorial Districts.
“I am honored to recognize Mary Maranville, founder and CEO of SEEAG, as a 2022 Commission for Women Service award recipient. SEEAG is an important organization that prioritizes the education of constituents with regards to agriculture,” says Supervisor Nelson. “I encourage everyone to come out and visit SEEAG’s annual Farm Day event this September to learn more about the industry that shapes our community.”
Other honorees for 2022 are Teresa Alvarez, executive director, Carpinteria Children’s Project (First District), Ali Cortes, co-founder, Bienestar Latinx (Second District), Raiza Giorgi, founder, Santa Ynez Valley Star (Third District) and Lawanda Lyons-Pruitt, president, Santa Maria-Lompoc NAACP Chapter (Fifth District).
“Women are impacting education, business and society in profound, positive ways,” says Maranville. “I’m grateful that CFW recognizes the work done by SEEAG in the county to educate students and the public about the importance of agriculture through our school programs and annual Santa Barbara County Farm Day.”
Here’s a link to a video of Maranville’s acceptance comments: video1471050807.mp4
About SEEAG — Founded in 2008, Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) is a nonprofit organization that aims to help young students understand the origins of their food by bridging the gap between agriculture and consumption through its agricultural education programming. SEEAG’s “The Farm Lab” program based in Ventura County teaches schoolchildren about the origins of their food and the importance of local farmland by providing schools with classroom agricultural education and free field trips to farms. Through this and other SEEAG programs, over 60,000 elementary school students in Central and Southern California have increased their understanding of the food journey. For more information, visit www.seeag.org or email Mary Maranville at mary@seeag.org.