On October 20th, the Seattle Chapter of the Awesome Foundation awarded its first monthly $1000 grant at a celebration hosted by the Adventure School’s downtown pop-up store.
And the winner is…
Kay Dudley, left, receives her $1k grant from Seattle Trustees
Kay Dudley for her Stories of Seattle Project. Kay will use her Awesome grant to “revive the oral story tradition and at the same time feed the homeless and hungry in Seattle.” She has already started roaming the streets of Seattle, trading homemade sandwiches for stories from people whose experiences are often ignored and silenced. She will use her grant to expand the operation by purchasing good recording equipment, a new web domain and storage space online to share the stories with the world, and lots and lots of high quality sandwich ingredients.
Kay, 19, is a student at Cornish College of the Arts and an aspiring author/playwright and part-time theatre designer. She plans to involve her fellow Cornish students in the project and hopes others around the country will be inspired to follow her lead and emulate the project. Awesome Foundation Trustee Heather Miller will serve as liaison and mentor to Stories of Seattle, ensuring that we provide ongoing support so the project can achieve its potential. We’ll post updates about the project and a link to the new site when its ready here.
Our first decision was tough, with 87 proposals to consider. Kay’s stood out for us as a top choice for our first grant because we wanted to support something that would serve the Seattle community and because we recognize that the challenges people are facing in these tough economic times are top of mind for everyone. We felt that Kay’s project has the potential to honor the voices of people who are experiencing the worst consequences of the downturn.
We’re gearing up to make our second grant, so please apply before the next deadline (October 31) and help spread the word. Awesome Foundation Seattle is fully operational and wants to hear about your awesome ideas.
Special thanks to Adventure School for hosting our first party.
Adventure School Foursquare Fun at Awesome Foundation Seattle Party
I’m proud of all of you! Keep up the inspiring work!
Cynthia Wilson aka “Nathan’s mom”