2004 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Contest Winners

Theme — The Struggle Continues

• First Prize Winner: Brisa P. Halviatti
• Second Prize Winner: Ryan Walsh
• Third Prize Winner: Aaron Williams

2004 Individual and Group Humanitarian Award winners

The 2004 King County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Humanitarian Award for an individual King County employee goes to:

Sadikifu Akina-James and Cheryl Markham

Ms. Akina-James, Community Services Division Director in the Department of Community and Human Services, and Ms. Markham, Coordinator, Affordable Housing Planning and Development, in that division, and were nominated for a particular project they worked on with many other County employees.

The nomination materials stated: Cheryl Markham and Sadikifu-Akina-James both spent countless hours over and above their normal duties during the spring and summer of 2003 to save Branch Villa, a nursing home in Seattle's Central Area that was threatened with foreclosure. Thanks to them this large (around 200 beds) nursing home, one that is very important to the local African American Community, has been saved.

At the beginning of 2003, Branch Villa was burdened with debt and had been operating at a loss. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development was about to foreclose on its mortgage ... and sell the property to the highest bidder. This important community resource would be gone. Taking advantage of a provision in federal law that enable HUD to negotiate a sale to a local government instead of selling to the highest bidder, Cheryl and Sadikifu negotiated a deal where King County purchased it and resold it immediately to another entity that the community had identified.

The 2004 King County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award for a group of King County employees goes to:

The South One-Juvenile Probation Unit in
Renton Superior Court

Members of the group include Juvenile Probation Counselors Tom Archer, Camilla Campbell, Christy Cochran, Marv Hoffman, Rachel Hubert, Darlin Johnson, Randy Kok, Karla Powelson, Diana Barden, Michael Bowles and Administrative Specialist Pat Durr. The unit is supervised by JoeAnne Taylor.

The nomination materials submitted for this group stated: For the past several years, the South One-Probation Unit in Renton has routinely set a unit goal they hope to accomplish within the year. Each goal the unit has set has been successful and has accomplished the project vision. This year the unit goal was to work with Northwest Harvest in the fight against hunger and to help promote community support and awareness. As probation counselors we see children and families daily who are struggling in life. Youth and families routinely visit our office hungry and had no food in their homes. Our vision was that all people, no matter what racial or cultural background would be able to benefit and share in the wealth of this project.

The nomination materials described how the group approached businesses, retired probation officers, tenants in their building, and many others asking them to participate in the food drive. In the end, the unit gathered over 7,025 items and over 1,500 pounds of food!