SAMMI Awards Foundation comes to an end after 15 years

By Megan Campbell • April 27, 2017 1:30 am
SAMMI Awards Foundation comes to an end after 15 years

After 15 years of recognizing community service and volunteerism for those who work, play and live in the city of Sammamish, the SAMMI Awards Foundation has come to an end.

“Everything has a shelf life,” outgoing SAMMI President Mayten Gross said. “It’s time to move on.”

The SAMMI Awards Foundation formed right after 9/11 as a way to honor those who make meaningful contributions to the community.

Gross said that the city has since evolved and other organizations, like the Rotary Club of Sammamish or the Kiwanis Club of Sammamish, are now more established and are handing out similar awards.

Dissolving was a unanimous decision its voting board did not come to easily, Gross said.

Gross, of Issaquah, is a 2013 SAMMI awardee. She joined the board the following year and then became president in 2015. She had planned on stepping down in 2016 but was having a hard time finding someone to take it over. Additionally, other SAMMI volunteers were finding it hard to dedicate their time to running the foundation.

But Gross is looking at this in a positive light.

“What a great legacy to leave to the city,” she said. She added, “We were just grateful for the opportunity.”

Co-founder Loren Stayboldt said hearing the foundation is ending “put me in a kind of state of mourning.”

“This is the time we need it more than ever,” he said.

With the help of the city of Sammamish, there is hope the foundation could resume one day.

The city of Sammamish is paying to preserve the foundation’s intellectual property as well as reserving its domain name.

“We just didn’t want to lose this opportunity,” City Manager Lyman Howard said. “Hopefully someone will pick it up in the future.”

Mayor Don Gerend was also sad to hear the foundation would be dissolving. He said he would like to see it come back, even every other year.

He said the absent organization will leave a hole in the community, but “it’s a hole that can be filled.”

The last SAMMI awards ceremony occurred in March 2016. SAMMI stands for “Sammamish Acknowledges Magnificent Moments of Inspiration.”