Nahant resident to receive volunteer award

NAHANT – A girl from Oklahoma ? who never saw the ocean until she was a teen ? has spent almost three decades advocating marine conservation in Nahant.Polly Bradley, 78, has spent the last 40 years of her life in Nahant, where she landed on a whim.?When I was a student at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Larry (Bradley) and I looked at a map,” she said. “We saw Nahant and decided to make a day trip there. I immediately knew it was where I wanted to live. I love it here.”On Tuesday, Bradley will be recognized by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment at a ceremony in Portland, Maine.Bradley is slated to receive the Longard Volunteer Award, which is awarded to an outstanding volunteer within the Gulf of Maine watershed, which stretched from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia.Bradley is receiving the award for her work with Safer Waters in Massachusetts (SWIM), which she founded 26 years ago.?I’m much honored,” she said. “Northeastern University Marine Science Center Outreach Coordinator Carolee McCauley nominated me. I was so surprised and just so honored.”This is just one of a myriad of awards Bradley has received for her environmental work.In 2009, Bradley received the River Stewardship Award from the Saugus River Watershed Council for her work to help protect the environment. She was named Citizen of the Year by Nahant Town Moderator David Conlin in 2002 and in 1990 she received the Citizenship Activist Award from the Environmental League of Massachusetts.Bradley has testified at numerous hearings at the State House on everything from liquid natural gas terminals and lobstering to no discharge zones. More than two decades after founding Safer Water Waters in Massachusetts, Bradley said she has decided to kick back a little, relax and spend more time enjoying the ocean waters she worked so hard to preserve.?The Boston Harbor Islands Park is as beautiful as any place on Earth,” Bradley said. “We have lots of family and friends who visit it from all over.”Bradley is also a prolific writer, she has penned more than 700 nature columns for the Audubon Society and writing has been a lifelong passion of hers.?I am working on a book of poetry for my family and four grandchildren,” Bradley said. “This will be my first book of poetry, but I’ve written poetry all my life. These days with electronic medium you can just have a book printed and that’s what I’m going to do.”The book will be illustrated by Nahanter Jackie Diehle Singer.