Pat Gozemba and Karen Kahn bring a lifetime of activism and we are grateful for their third act as founders of SAFE
By Bonnie Bain
Photos by Dana J. Quigley, DJQ Media LLC
Our Founding Mothers, Pat Gozemba and Karen Kahn, held SAFE for over 20 years. Their third act of love for their community (SAFE) was infused with the activism they honed over decades working for women’s rights, worker’s rights, and LGBTQI+ rights. Karen brought communications expertise and Pat brought charisma and a steadfast commitment to organizing for justice.
It was with great joy that we hosted dignitaries and friends of SAFE to honor these two pillars in our community on November 14, 2024 at the Hawthorne Hotel. We are grateful to Cindy Luppi of Clean Water Action for being our MC, and to all of our sponsors for the evening: Clean Water Action, New England for Offshore Wind, Bob Goldman Law, Tufts College of Civic Life, Salem State University, Sierra Club Massachusetts, and Conservation Law Foundation.
Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, Senator Joan Lovely, and Mayor Dominick Pangallo all shared words and presented honors to Pat and Karen. The Peabody Essex Museum announced SAFE’s founders would be added to the Salem Stories exhibit in 2025. SATV produced a tribute video and recorded the evening.
SAFE kicked off a new tradition of presenting annual awards. Our 2024 Local Climate Champion Award was presented to Pat Gozemba for her Leadership in Community Organizing for Environmental Justice Initiatives, and our 2024 Speak Up! Award was presented to Karen Kahn for Excellence in Communication and Education on Climate Challenges and Solutions. We are grateful to Steve Galante and Dustin Luca for their care and thoughtful remarks in presenting the awards. See heartfelt responses to the tributes from both Pat and Karen.
The SAFE Board and I feel rooted and purposeful in the work ahead because of what was planted by SAFE’s founders. The vision of the garden of abundance for the future with hyper local bent is a beautiful resistance and the way through. Our work towards climate and environmental justice is intersectional and critically tied to economic justice, racial justice, housing & health equity, women’s rights, and LGBTQI+ justice.
With an ethos for social justice at our roots, we will always center community power building and system change in our efforts. We are so grateful to have this foundation for the next decade of climate justice work in Salem and the North Shore as a newly resourced organization.
Bonnie Bain is SAFE’s Executive Director.