DULUTH — Environmental advocate Judy Gibbs included a phrase at the bottom of many emails she sent over the years. It's even stamped on her car's license plate: “Unless.” It’s a shortened reminder of a line in the Dr.
Seuss book, “The Lorax,” which urges people to get involved and take responsibility, hinting at the power one person can have if they care and take action. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,” Dr. Seuss’ character the Once-ler warns.
“Nothing is going to get better. It's not.” But Gibbs didn’t simply use it as a catchphrase.
“It embodies Judy’s whole life,” said Lisa Luokkala, executive director of the Superior Hiking Trail Association. ADVERTISEMENT In October, at the first Great Lakes Outdoor Summit, organizers of the Duluth event honored Gibbs with an award for her lifetime of outdoor-focused efforts. They called it the “Unless’’ award and handed Gibbs an engraved Pulaski pickax, a fitting memento considering how much trail building Gibbs has done over the years.
Now, organizers are working to make the summit an annual event and plan to give the award each year to a deserving outdoor activist. They’re calling it the “Judy Gibbs Unless Award.” “Judy is the last person in the world who would want an award named after.
She’s just not the kind of person who seeks out recognition or fame,” added Luokkala, head of the outdoors summit planning committee. "She does not like the limelight. But she is probab.
