Wildlands Conservancy, the premier nonprofit land trust of the Lehigh Valley and Lehigh River watershed, announced its honorees for the 2018 Volunteer of the Year Awards, which include local Coplay resident, Scott Richards.

The Volunteer of the Year award is Wildlands’ annual acknowledgment of individuals, groups, organizations or businesses that deserve to be recognized for their share of time and talent to support the nonprofit land trust’s land protection, environmental stewardship and education efforts.

Richards and the staff of the financial advisory firm Richards, Meli & Associates started their connection with the organization by participating in a volunteer day with Wildlands in 2015.

The team returned in 2016, this time following the passing of Scott’s father and well-loved leader of the company – Ed Richards.

They were inspired to turn this loss into an opportunity to give back and to shine a light on Ed’s legacy.

Their efforts are continued each year with the ongoing maintenance of the boardwalk on the floodplain trail at the Pool Wildlife Sanctuary in Emmaus.

“They [Richards, Meli and Associates] are one of many groups who have spent time on this project [the boardwalk], but it’s the motivation behind their work that inspires me and the rest of my staff when we see them arrive on site each year,” Chris Kocher, president of Wildlands Conservancy, said. “We want to acknowledge them for their dedicated efforts to restore our boardwalk, and we are very glad to include them among our 2018 honorees.”