Our very own Mary Hayes Gordon, Director of Program Operations here at Young Scholars LPP, was honored by the Mohawk Valley Community Action Agency (MVCAA) as the recipient of the Treva Wood Community Activist Award this past week.
This award is presented to an individual who has dedicated themselves to fight for the empowerment of the low-income members of our community. This individual works tirelessly for the rights and the opportunities for success of each individual.
“Mary Hayes Gordon holds the belief that when all people can feel comfortable participating in their community, then the entire community does better. Welcoming people, listening to their voices, and using her voice to foster good change has been her goal throughout many years as a community activist.
She has volunteered with many local organizations to do this work. Starting in high school as a student representative in the Parent, Teacher, Student Association, Mary has continued this work as an executive committee member of the Boards of the YWCA of the Mohawk Valley, The Mohawk Valley Community Action Agency, and the NAACP of Utica and Oneida County. For over a decade she has sat on the United Way Community Impact Committee. Starting in 2021 she has worked with Robbie Dancy and the Juneteenth Committee and has recently joined the board of the Mid Utica Neighborhood Preservation Corporation, and the Bessie Hicks Senior Center. She continues to bring a DEI focus to her work and is pleased to be the founding chair of the DEI committee of the Sculpture Space international Art residency program in Utica.
Her work does not focus solely on the present. In her position as the co-chair of the Oneida County Freedom Trail Commission, Mary specializes in researching and bringing to notice the work done by Blacks and women in the Underground Railroad and the Abolition Movement.
She is currently privileged to work in education, one of the most immediate and powerful ways that people move from poverty, by serving the families of Utica through her position as Director of Program Operations in the Young Scholars LPP through Utica University and the Utica City School District. ”
Mary’s Favorite Quote:
” I tell my students, ‘ When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game,’ – Toni Morrison”