Hudson Valley Environmental Educator Honored by Scenic Hudson for Inspiring Next Generation of Conservation Leaders

Scenic Hudson, one of the Hudson Valley’s most respected environmental organizations, selected Laurie Seeman, Founder and Executive Director of Strawtown Studio, to be an Honoree at the 2026 Gala, in celebration of the Next Generation of Environmental Champions which took place on June 6, 2026.

Seeman was recognized alongside Heather Ann Pitcher, founder of the Brain and Body Coalition, for their shared work inspiring and shaping the next generation of environmental leaders. Richard Krupp, outgoing Scenic Hudson board chair, and his wife Natasha Krupp were also honored for ushering in a bold new era of environmental leadership.

About Laurie Seeman

An artist, naturalist, and educator, Laurie Seeman has spent more than two decades pioneering arts-based, experiential environmental education in the Hudson Valley. In 2002, she founded Strawtown Studio with a clear vision: to help children form deep, lasting relationships with the natural world. Since then, Strawtown has brought tens of thousands of young people into hands-on experiences with nature, art, and science in their local parks, yards, woods, streams, and rivers.

Her years working with youth along Hudson Valley waterways led Seeman to become a leading voice in regional water advocacy. She founded the Sparkill Creek Watershed Alliance and co-leads the Rockland Water Coalition, whose successful effort to stop a proposed Hudson River desalination plant earned the group the EPA Environmental Champion Award.

Seeman has received numerous honors, including the NYS Assembly Woman of Distinction Proclamation and the Rockland County Executive’s Outstanding Environmental Volunteer Award. Her advocacy work lives inside Strawtown’s curriculum, helping the next generation become resilient, connected, and thoughtful young people ready for tomorrow’s challenges.

Seeman says, “This recognition by Scenic Hudson is supremely furthering for the way it in turn inspires our work forward. We are aspiring to reach our fuller potential through training other educators and parents to carry the Strawtown teachings and approach to their children so this all will multiply out. In so many ways it seems like our work is just newly beginning! We are so grateful to Scenic for this spotlight!”

The Significance of This Recognition

Receiving this honor from Scenic Hudson affirms more than two decades of commitment to a simple but powerful belief: that every child deserves the opportunity to form a relationship with the natural world. The recognition inherently celebrates not only Seeman, but everyone who has made Strawtown’s work possible — all the parents, artists, educators, program partners, governing officials, advocates, and the thousands of children who have brought the programming to life.

Laurie’s deepest aspiration: that every child will learn by interacting with the natural world around them — wading into the shallows, painting with river clay, looking out at the Hudson — and feeling at home there.

About Strawtown Studio

Strawtown Studio is a nonprofit arts-based environmental education organization and the Hudson Valley's longest-running nature and science discovery program. Founded in 2002, Strawtown connects children and communities to the natural world through immersive experiences at the intersection of art, nature, and science, with programming rooted in Rockland County at Garner Arts Center in Garnerville and Marydell Faith & Life Center in Nyack.

Strawtown Studio is also excited to announce its expansion into Westchester County, bringing its signature programming to new communities with after-school programs now underway in Sleepy Hollow at Kingsland Point Park, and family workshops at the Bethany Arts Community in Ossining. This summer, Strawtown will also be bringing its programming to two Westchester festivals: the Hudson River Music Festival, Sunday, June 21st at Croton Point Park, and the Mermaid Festival, Saturday, July 18th, rain date the 19th, at Kingsland Point Park.

Giving children a relationship with their local nature, is the work that Scenic Hudson’s recognition celebrates, and that Laurie and the Strawtown staff are highly committed to. As Strawtown grows, its founding purpose leads to new opportunities for young Hudson Valley residents to discover more to love about where they live.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: visit: strawtownstudio.org, Contact Julie Litz: Julie@strawtownstudio.org