Augusta Lewis Troup Award Winners Paula and Frank Panzarella, 2011
Augusta "Gussie" Lewis Troup (1848 – September 14, 1920) was a women's rights activist and journalist who advocated for equal pay, better working conditions for women, and women's right to vote. She was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 2013.[1]
For twenty-five years the Panzarella's were organizers of the May Day/ International Workers' Day festival on the New Haven Green. In 2006, they organized Fight the Hike, a state-wide organization that demanded the Connecticut lawmakers and commissioners regulate and lower electric rates, immediately develop more access to renewables in low-income communities, and replace fossil fuels with renewable electricity.