Mayor Gray.

Mayor is away on the personal business along with two of um members of Mayor Mary Bunting, our city manager, and also Councilwoman Malcolmudlaway on official business.

And so at this time I'll ask uh Brian McKees to introduce uh session tonight.

Okay.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Brown.

Thank you, members of council, Deputy City Manager DeProfio and City Attorney Sidner.

This evening spotlight shines uh on a group of individuals whose voices were critical to Hampton being named a 2025 All-America City.

Although they weren't part of the delegation that traveled to Denver, their contributions to the application process added depth, authentic authenticity, and power.

They shared their expertise, their lived experiences, and their community leadership, ensuring Hampton's story was told in the truest way possible.

These are the people who helped show the nation that resilience in Hampton isn't just a policy or a program, it's a way of life, woven into our neighborhoods, our schools, our organizations, and our daily work.

Together, these individuals helped us present Hampton as an authentic, innovative, and resilient community.

They emboldened our theme of being resilient together.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go through each person and tell you a little bit about them.

Uh and uh Vice Mayor Brown, you can come down and uh and present their uh plaque.

Um so let's uh join in uh thanking these individuals and their invaluable contributions.

Uh when you're called up, you can uh come up uh to be recognized.

Um a couple people um uh weren't able to make it this evening, um and but I'm still want to recognize them nonetheless.

Uh the first is Olivia Skew.

Um she's Hampton's resiliency specialist.

Olivia helped frame the big picture of Hampton's flooding challenges with our living with water strategy.

She tied together uh projects like Lake Hampton, the Big Bethel uh Blue Way, and Armistead Avenue, showing how Hampton is preparing for the future while protecting its residents today.

She was instrumental in putting together the application uh with us, and uh although she uh would have been a part of the uh delegation to Denver, she had an even more monumental task here at home.

She welcomed a new baby just weeks before we left.

And so I know you guys all know Olivia, and that's actually probably where she is now is with her baby.

Um so uh she was the first one, so um next I want to recognize Velva Goodman.

She's in the audience here.

Um Velva, you're welcome to come on up.

Velva's neighborhood of Briarfield was faced with repeated flooding from Newmarket Creek.

I believe she is among the first residents to engage with the Dutch dialogues, uh, which is 10 years ago now, I believe.

Um and she inspired her neighbors to do the same.

I got to talk to her a little bit before, and she's she's the the big message board there and and talking to the community and keeping them updated with things with the city.

Her advocacy both in the neighborhood and across the city has made citizen voices, citizen voices um the part that they are uh in Hampton's resilience planning.

Ms.

Goodman was helpful in crafting a lot of the intro material to our application and background information.

And for that we thank her.

Vice Mayor Brown?

That's okay.

All right, perfect.

Everybody right here.

Next we have Wendy Isles.

Um Wendy, um a lot of you guys know her as well.

So she's with the ham, was with the Hampton Hampton City Clean City Commission, and Wendy underscored our tradition of environmental stewardship from school pride in action to oyster gardening, community cleanups, community gardens.

She's been a part of it all from the beginning.

So she reminded us that resilience begins with residents taking ownership of their city and their environment.

Wendy, thank you.

Everybody got him.

All right, and me.

Three, two, one.

Awesome.

Thank you guys.

Next we have Betsy McAllister.

As part of Hampton City Schools, Betsy is a STEM teacher and partnered with Claire Newbert, who we'll talk about in a minute on the Oyster Restoration Program.

I've heard lots of great things about Betsy.

Mike gave me a briefing here earlier today about she is the most amazing science teacher in all of Hampton City schools.

She highlighted how raising oysters, learning science, and directly contributing to a cleaner waterways makes Hampton a more resilient city and makes that education a part of their daily lives.

So for that, thank you, Betsy.

All right.

And there's some of those oysters there with the kids on the on the screen.

Next we have Claire Newbert.

Claire is a co-founder of Short Up LLC, an organization dedicated to fostering stewardship of our ward waterways through eco tour experiences and hands-on education.

She worked with schools and students on the Oyster Program, helping young people connect with the bay, understand its challenges, and develop a lasting love with the environment.

Her work demonstrates how local business and educators can inspire the next generation to protect our water and heritage.

And I believe Claire's not here tonight, so and actually I think that might be it for the people that are here tonight.

Next, we have Mary Carson Stiff.

She is a CEO of Wetlands Watch.

Mary Carson helped connect our story to the regional and nonprofit resilience of the movement.

Her team supported the work in Aberdeen Gardens, which you guys are all familiar with.

And she also allowed her staff to uh support our application.

And as you guys also remember, she had one of her staff members, Jelani, uh, join our delegate delegation to Denver.

So we are big uh fans and um thankful for Wetlands watch uh and and their work uh here in the community.

And last but not least, um uh I want to recognize one person, Anne Marie Dwyer.

Um she's actually our city's graphic designer.

She uh Amory's creativity has brought Hampton's story to life visually through graphics, props, and giveaways that made our presentation engaging and memorial uh memorable, excuse me.

And I know you guys have had the t-shirts and have the pens and everything else that she has made uh and have enjoyed those.

Her work has ensured that our message has resonated not just in words but with images too.

And she produced all the work that we took uh to Denver to um show off the city.

So, where does that leave us?

Hampton's strength comes from its people.

These honorees help prove that resilience is not just a concept or a plan in a book, it's neighbors helping neighbors, it's teachers inspiring students, it's nonprofits sharing and partnering with communities, and it's city staff pushing forward bold solutions.

And that is why Hampton is and will continue to be an all-America City.

And for that with that, I turn it back to you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Brian.

Let's give her about a hand that receives recognition tonight.

Yes.

And just want to thank each and every one of you for your volunteerism, your commitment to our city.

Uh it makes Hampton an all-American city, and coastal resiliency is something that we have been working on for a number of years, and to to see that people are still at it, uh, mitigating flooding and using green and gray and brown infrastructure to make sure that we uh respect sea rise because it will happen and that our residents can live in their homes without the fear or the intrepidation of flooding and and uh the trauma of water.

So thank you again, and uh keep doing what you do because volunteers are priceless, uh they are valuable, and they can't be paid for what they're worth.

And City Council gratefully appreciates all that you've done.

So thank you again, appreciate it.

One more hand for them.

Thank you.

We we we have uh a lot of time left.

So uh I think we're going to adjourn until our 6 30 legislative session.

You're welcome to stay.

If you can't stay, you can watch us online.

And uh certainly thank you again.

God bless, and we'll see you at 6 30.

Meet and adjourn.