Sam Adams Alliance Announces Winners of Inaugural Sammie Awards
CHICAGO--The Sam Adams Alliance is pleased to announce the six winners of their inaugural Sammie Awards. The awards are designed to recognize outstanding citizen leadership and creativity nationwide, and are being given this year to individuals and groups from Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
"We are proud to see so many citizens participating in the effort for greater government accountability and transparency," said Bob Costello, Sam Adams Alliance president. "We hope the Sammies can highlight their efforts and encourage them-and others-to continue working to advance the ideals of liberty."
- Melyssa Donaghy of Indianapolis won the $5,000 "Tea Party" award for staging numerous creative protests around the state in response to Indiana's increasing property tax burden.
- Sal Costello of Austin, Texas won the $5,000 Best Short Satire Film award for his animation highlighting the "double taxation" associated with Austin's highway toll rates.
- Leon Drolet of Macomb, Mich. won the $5,000 Best Short Documentary award for his video footage of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance spreading the word about State Representative Marc Couriveau's 3,000 percent tax increase on local garbage disposal.
- Stefan Sharkansky of Seattle won the $5,000 Sunshine award for his work investigating the government with Washington's Public Records Act and exposing cases of government waste, incompetence, and malfeasance on his blog, Sound Politics.
- Ben Cunningham of Nashville won the $5,000 Local Blogger award for his blog, Taxing Tennessee, which gets on average over 2 million views weekly and covers topics on taxes, freedom, and individual rights.
- Finally, the "We Demand A Vote Coalition" from Hamilton County, Ohio won the $10,000 "Modern-Day Sam Adams" award for its work to defeat an $800 million sales tax increase through grassroots mobilization.
The winners will be honored at an awards ceremony in Chicago on December 20, and details for next year's Sammie Awards will be posted on the Sam Adams Alliance website-www.samadamsalliance.org-in the coming months.
Listen to Paul Jacob's Common Sense episode on the winners of the Sammies!
