On Thursday 9 June in New York the handover ceremony of the "Seamen's Church Institute's Lifesaving Award".
The award was awarded by the Silver Bell Awards Committee of the Seamen's Church Institute North America, an organization founded in 1834 to assist and support seafarers and the sailing community. The institute promotes the safety, dignity and quality of work environments for men and women who work on the sea in the North American continent and in the wider world. In this context it is tradition every year to give credit to personalities or organizations who have made an extraordinary commitment to seafarers or who have been protagonists of acts of courage or heroism.
"The 2016 Lifesaving Award wants to recognize the enormous effort made by the Italian Navy to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean Sea whose proportions are unprecedented in recent history.
Working daily with other agencies and cooperating countries, the Navy has the merit of having saved thousands of lives in the last two years, coordinating complex rescue operations characterized by a multiplicity of vessels and by weather conditions that are not always favorable". In the same context, the Italian Coastal Guard and the Hellenic Guard were also awarded for the same reason.
Rear Admiral Valter Zappellini, naval attaché for the United States, representing the Chief of Staff of the Navy, received the award from the president of the institute, Reverend David M. Rider, in the presence of the deputy commander of the US Coast Guard, adm . Charles D. Michel.
The Silver Bell Awards Committee awarded the award to the Navy for the following reason: "In recognition of their tremendous efforts and coordination of humanitarian operations in the Mediterranean Sea".
