Photo courtesy of Friends of Acadia

L.L. Bean representatives Kelly Warsky and Janet Wyper, receive the Marianne Edwards Distinguished Service Award from David MacDonald (right), president of Friends of Acadia.

BAR HARBOR, Maine – Friends of Acadia honored L.L.Bean with the Marianne Edwards Distinguished Service Award at the Friends of Acadia annual meeting on July 16 at the Bar Harbor Club.

Established in 1991, award was named for the late founder of Friends of Acadia and is the organization’s highest honor.

In making the presentation to L.L.Bean representatives Janet Wyper and Kelly Warskey, Friends president

David MacDonald noted L.L.Bean’s early and ongoing support for the Island Explorer bus system;

its leadership in investing in the next generation of conservationists through Acadia internships,

scholarships, and educational opportunities for thousands of students from throughout Maine; and its efforts to spread the conservation ethic, the Acadia story and the Maine brand world-wide.

Other honorees at the annual meeting were Bar Harbor hoteliers Dick Collier and David Witham, given

the Conservation Colleague Award for their work to enable the construction of the new Duck Brook

Connector Trail; Burnham Martin of the National Park Service Rivers & Trails Conservation Assistance

program, given the Outstanding Public Service Award for his assistance on the Trenton Community

Trail; and Mary Ann Siklosi, given the Excellence in Volunteerism Award for her behind-the-scenes

work in the Friends of Acadia office to organize the filing system.

More than 200 Friends of Acadia members, directors and members of the public attended the meeting. In addition to award presentation, the meeting included reports on the organization’s finances and programs from 2011, comments from Acadia National Park Superintendent Sheridan Steele, and a reception.

Before the public part of the event, the Friends of Acadia board of directors met to elect two new members to the board, Mike Cook of Annapolis, Md., and Southwest Harbor, and the Honorable C. Boyden Gray of Washington, D.C., and Northeast Harbor.