Tree Street Youth recognizes Ruth Cyr with Heartwood Award

Tree Street Youth Center recognized Ruth Cyr with the 2019 Heartwood Award at the annual “I Am Tree” event held April 24 at Bates College. Cyr, a community education assistant with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), has been delivering nutrition education to youth for 23 years.

The award recognizes Cyr’s “selfless service to the students at Tree Street Youth,” wrote executive director Julia Sleeper-Whiting in the award letter. She also noted that Cyr’s work “has been a powerful example of commitment and care for our students while teaching them important lessons around nutrition and health.”

EFNEP is a nationwide community nutrition education program that focuses on limited-resource families with an emphasis on parents and other adult caregivers who have primary responsibilities of feeding young children, as well as educational programs for youth ages 5–19. It has been in Maine 50 years.