The 2014 Crosscut Courage Award Winners

Improvements in the human condition often begin with a single person endowed with an extra dose of courage, determined to do the right thing in the face of obstacles and naysayers for the benefit of the many. Seattle magazine is proud to partner with Crosscut to present the second annual Crosscut Courage Awards. Meet the local business, public service and cultural leaders whose personal and professional dedication is making our region more vital, equitable and inclusive.

BUSINESS COURAGE WINNER
As graduate students in business school together, Community Sourced Capital’s cofounders knew something was missing: There was no good way for cash-strapped businesses to finance small-scale improvements that would grow their enterprises. So Rachel Maxwell, 55, and Casey Dilloway, 28, did something slightly revolutionary. They created their own financial system—a platform that helps businesses leverage their own communities to provide zero interest loans, financed in $50 chunks known as “squares.” “Everyone told us we couldn’t possibly do that,” Maxwell says. So far, though, the company has enlisted 3,000 community lenders, or squareholders, to finance about $450,000 in projects, including the opening of Pioneer Square’s Pizzeria Gabbiano.

PUBLIC SERVICE COURAGE WINNER
Last December, Eastside Catholic High School vice principal Mark Zmuda’s same-sex marriage lost him his job. Shocked, some of his students decided to speak up, organizing protests, media events and petition drives on Zmuda’s behalf. The hard work of student organizers, including Sienna Colburn, 16, Chase Crittenden, 18, and then senior Julia Burns, 19, drew national attention to the issue.  

CULTURE COURAGE WINNER
As the head of performance at the University of Washington’s School of Drama and a founder of African-American theater company The Hansberry Project, Valerie Curtis-Newton, 55, has committed herself to diversifying Northwest theater and occasioning frank conversations about race. She has taken fire from members of all communities over her choices and methods, but she hasn’t eased up or backed down. “People are afraid to have that conversation [about inclusion],” Curtis-Newton says. “But I want to have the conversation so much. When you’re working for the biggest possible ideal, all your fears get really small. If more of us find the courage to connect to that big ideal, we’ll cross the bridge more easily.”

DAVID BREWSTER
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER

Lifetime achievement winner, the late Billy Frank Jr., of the Nisqually Indian Tribe; below, Willie Frank III accepted the award on his father’s behalf; photo Billy frank: Ecotrust; Willie Frank: Chelon Ione Towner

The late Billy Frank Jr., a member of the Nisqually Indian Tribe, asserted tribal treaty rights to harvest Northwest salmon long before they were recognized by the courts. For this brash assertion, Frank was “chased and tear-gassed, tackled, punched, pushed face first into the mud, handcuffed and dragged soaking wet to the county jail” and arrested more than 50 times over the course of his life. Nonetheless, Frank helped create the Nisqually River Council, and brought the council’s warring factions together (farmers, loggers, small towns, large corporations, the U.S. Park Service, Joint Base Lewis-McChord and others) to restore the Nisqually River and its precious salmon runs.

This article originally appeared in our annual Best and Worst story. For more Best and Worst of 2014, go here.