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The union’s top scholarship fundraiser is being honored this month with the union’s Eugene P. Link Award for Outstanding Devotion and Service to the Cause of Unionism in Higher Education. The award has been presented only five other times since its inception in 1984.
Gertrude Butera of SUNY Alfred will receive the award during the 2008 Fall Delegate Assembly, slated for Sept. 19-20 in Albany. The UUP Scholarship Selection Committee nominated Butera for the award, and the UUP Executive Board gave its heartfelt endorsement.
“Trudy is being recognized for her unwavering devotion to our long-standing scholarship fund,” UUP President Phillip Smith said. “Her unparalleled efforts to keep the UUP scholarship growing is an inspiration to all of us.”
The award was first given in January 1985 to its namesake, a SUNY Plattsburgh professor emeritus of history and a founding member of UUP. Others who have received the award are: former UUP president Samuel Wakshull of Buffalo State; Belle Zeller, past president of Professional Staff Congress/CUNY; Dan Sanders, former NYSUT executive vice president; and state Assemblyman Richard Conners.
This is not the first time UUP has acknowledged Butera’s contributions to the union. In 1996, she earned the union’s prestigious Nina Mitchell Award for Distinguished Service, which recognized her tireless advocacy efforts at the state and chapter levels, as well as for her devotion as an honorary trustee of the UUP College Scholarship Fund. In 2006, the union again honored Butera with a student scholarship given annually in her name, in recognition of the more than $700,000 she has helped to raise for the fund since being named an honorary trustee in 2000.
Butera was also named as a 2006 Woman of Distinction by the New York state Senate. She was selected by Sen. Catharine Young for her longtime service as a community activist, including her roles as chair of the union’s Scholarship Development Committee and as a UUP delegate.
— Karen L. Mattison