Alison Forsgren and Charles Stott Named 2026 Nantucket Seniors Of The Year

Island residents Alison Forsgren and Charles Stott have been named the 2026 Nantucket Seniors of the Year by the Nantucket Council on Aging. 

The annual award recognizes volunteerism by seniors who are active and involved in the community at large. Since 2004, the Council on Aging has selected one man and one woman to be recognized (prior to 2004, just one individual was selected, going back to 1988, when the award was founded).

Forsgren has been active in the community since 1980, including many years on the board of Friends of Our Island Home. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Civil Rights and Action Center at the Nantucket Unitarian Meeting House; a member of the Nantucket AIDS Network; and a board member of Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts. She was instrumental in starting the Memory Cafe on Nantucket for residents with memory loss and their caregivers, and she is a leading English-as-a-second-language trainer. She has been a board member of Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands and has helped many seniors in the community by taking them to medical appointments, as well as helping families with child care.

Scott has served as co-president of the Nantucket Civic League, the umbrella organization for Nantucket’s 24 neighborhood associations, since 2015 and has led its efforts to encourage more participation in local government and keep citizens informed about local issues. The Civic League, under Charlie’s stewardship (with another co-president), offers the “Meet the Articles" sessions prior to every Town Meeting and “Meet the Candidates” prior to every election. His community activity began in 2006 when he helped form the Madaket Residents Association, which later merged with the Madaket Conservation Association (MCA). Stott was co-president of the MCA for a year and a board member for several years. One of his most notable activities was raising money to support the Land Bank purchase of the 92-acre parcel at Head of the Plains. He also initiated efforts to establish a mosquito control project and became chair of the Mosquito Control Commission.

Forsgren and Stott will be recognized at an event in July sponsored by the NCEA/Friends of Nantucket Seniors and attended by their friends and families, in addition to town and state government officials.

Criteria for this award:

• Must be 60 or older
• Enthusiastically involved in the community as an unpaid volunteer
• A role model for peers
• Representative of all the outstanding seniors on our island
• Exemplify the “spirit of positive aging”
• Cheerfully willing to help others
• Cannot be a paid of employee of a senior center, Council on Aging or Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands

Awardees are selected from an especially active group of seniors who volunteer their time to serve on town boards, actively support island non-profits and assist individuals in need.