Cary Shaw named the 2019 American Atheists’ Connecticut Activist of the Year

Cary Shaw has been a tireless activist in the Connecticut atheist, humanist, and freethinker community for many years.

Cary is the President of the Humanists and Freethinkers of Fairfield County (HFFC) and he has been a board member of the Connecticut Coalition of Reason since its inception in 2013.  He is also a key member and legislative lead for the Secular Coalition for Connecticut.

And while Cary continues to do amazing things every year, this year Cary has done a number of leading things in CT.

He brought in big names to events in the state giving Connecticut more national recognition: Robyn Blumner CEO of the CFI and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science as well as Mandisa Thomas the founder and President of Black Nonbelievers (which may help to expedite the formation of Connecticut’s first Black Non-believers chapter).

He upped HFFC’s game in a number of ways including implementing new technology for their newsletter (which is arguably the best in CT) but also still gets the old school technology to work for them as well e.g., hanging flyers around town which attracted a well-known CT YouTuber to one of their events which was the subject of a video he created about Mandisa Thomas’s visit.

Cary was responsible for getting a local movie theater to screen secular movies in the past and this year brought in Hail Satan. While this may have been slightly overshadowed by Lucien Greaves visit sponsored by AHSCTRI, it is still part of a broader list of his amazing contributions. 

He almost single-handedly was responsible for the completion of the full interactive vision of the Yale Humanist Community’s Lighthouse winter season display this year with his generosity.

Cary has played an integral part in organizing Connecticut’s largest Darwin Day event every year for the past 11 years which has had appearances by Senator Blumenthal and Representative Himes because of his efforts. 2019 was no exception. 

Cary is always available to show up for events throughout the state. He is always pushing the boundaries of publicity whenever possible. He is always ready for a protest or to support those in need.  He is thoughtful, super knowledgeable, and well-spoken especially when it comes to Lobbying at the state Capitol in Hartford or in Washington D.C.