Tha annual Westside Awards Breakfast on May 22 sponsored by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce brought together the best of the community to be recognized for all they do.

The honorees are:

• EMERGING BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

• Southpaw Barber Shop

• NOT FOR PROFIT OF THE YEAR

• A Cleaner Alki

• BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

• Alki Beach Academy

• WESTSIDER OF THE YEAR

• Mike Kreiger

Sponsored by Nucor Steel the annual breakfast is intended to single out those people, organizations and businesses that have had an impact on the quality of life here in the past year.

This year the keynote was handled differently with Emcee Brian Callanan WSCC Board Member and Seattle Channel host having a conversation with Executive Vice President & General Counsel for the Seattle Mariners Fred Rivera. The focus was on the Mariners in the community and how they reach out. He noted that the group that runs the Mariners is "actually small group of people" but that they have long term employees whose institutional knowledge makes a big difference. Rivera said, "We have a very simple and straightforward mission to win championships, create unforgettable experiences and serve our communities. And I think to create team work, we all have to be aligned to that mission."

He spoke about how the Mariners organization works to foster relationships in the community. "Economically, we want to have as many businesses be part of what we do at T-Mobile Park as possible... We do everything we can to engage small businesses, women and minority businesses to bring in new vendors constantly. Every year we do a vendor fair. And we welcome new vendors to come and learn about the needs that we have so they can bid..." Regarding local improvements he said that the team's lease states they must remain in the top ten of all baseball parks nationally so they visit other parks they regard as among the best so they can keep pace. "Before the 2023 season, which was the All Star game season, we did almost $80 million in capital improvements at T-Mobile Park. We did over $40 million this past season leading into the 24th season and it's very important to us that we engage with as many different types of contractors and subcontractors to do the work."

Rivera spoke about the importance of playgrounds and access to them especially for underserved communities. "We're a baseball team and what we can do is use that expertise and that platform to expand access to sports. Particularly baseball and softball."

He mentioned of all sports professional baseball offers the most content with 162 regular season games and that how people consume that content has changed and ranges from attending live for three hours to those that stream it or watch it in 15 minute increments. He said that baseball is akin to a "Broadway Show" in that they put on a show for three hours several nights a week.

Finally Rivera noted that the 25th Anniversary of the stadium will be celebrated this June with "Somebody special" coming for the event.

The Westside Emerging Business of the year was Southpaw Barbershop with co-owners Tommy Andrade and Jeffrey Chou accepting the award. Andrade, who predicted to his partner that they would be the winners this year at last year's event said, "We really care about the community that we're in, giving back, whether that's sponsoring a school... giving out free haircuts, doing what we can to look out for our community. I feel like if everyone looked out for the person on their right and their left, then everybody would be taken care of."

Erik Bell and A Cleaner Alki took the award for Westside Non Profit of the year. Bell said, A Cleaner Alki actually started as a vision for myself to be more present and see community in my own life. Although cleaning up was the focus of my work, it's really just a byproduct of building the connections that I needed in my own life, I've heard it said that in community it helps to be in the middle of the herd rather than on the fringes. And during the pandemic, I felt disconnected and adrift for one of the first times in my life. Definitely on the fringes. This came from a myriad of reasons, but looking back they were all outside of my control. I started to ask myself what helped in the past, you know, bring a sense of purpose. Some Saturday Alki Beach cleanups that I've done with my brother for close to a decade  were always there to kind of lift my spirits and give me a sense of momentum. I started the daily morning ritual cleaning up Alki soon thereafter and in about 3 months in my spirits llifted and I was meeting other regulars at the beach." 

Since then they've gone on to form relationships with SDOT, Seattle Parks and the Forest Stewards regularly cleaning up streets, parks, neighborhoods, encampments and dumping grounds. 

Bell said, "Since starting almost three years ago, we've held 350 group events and removed 44 tons of trash and overgrowth from the community. So. I've been given praise for this, but the truth is that this has only happened for the people that show up and support this project, the community and the fellowship that has come out of this is what has really made the project meaningful to me and to others."

The Alki Beach Academy won the award for Westside Business of the year with Juliann and James Donahue owners accepting. She said, "This honor doesn't go to one person. There is a tribe of us. There is a group of us that take care of the children every day and the children are the most precious gift to their families and we do not take that lightly." The Alki Beach Academy was started in 2014 as a childcare and education facility. Donahue explained, "So that means that our graduates that we have out there today are driving cars... just to put things into perspective. In the past ten years, we've had the privilege of caring for 686 children in the community, mainly West Seattle residents, but we've also had the pleasure of having families come from other areas that worked in the West Seattle area. 75% of our children start with us as infants. That's approximately 4 months old and they will stay with us until they move on to kindergarten when they are five and six years old again. Another amazing privilege and I'm sure there's people in here that understand what it takes to be able to have your children be in a place that you can be and feel safe... today we care for 140 children because we do have a daughter school called La Maison Alki on Alki Beach, and it cares for 12 children. But we do have 140 children and 53 dedicated full time employees, and our goal is to give all the children an opportunity to grow."

Westsider of the year honors went to teacher Mike Krieger who as a teacher at Madison Middle School organizes the program where 8th grade volunteers help welcome the incoming 6th graders. He also coaches the Madison Boys basketball team, and youth basketball for the YMCA. Krieger said that he and his family never want to leave West Seattle. "This place is special, especially because of the businesses and people that come here... We got some good stuff going on in West Seattle and I really appreciate it." Krieger continued, " Entertainment figures have talked about being part of the community and welcoming all children, no matter what, and we're all kids together. That's the secret sauce there. You don't put kids in a room and lock them up and say good luck. You let them play, you let them do art .No one will remember when you taught them, but they remember how you make them feel. So 10 - 20 years from now, how did you make them feel? And that's the most important thing."