Celebrating 2005's Best of Puget Sound

Each year, the Editorial Board of The Seattle Times recognizes individuals or groups that have made significant contributions to the community in the previous year. For 2005, the Best of Puget Sound are:

• Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, the largest independent nonprofit medical research group in the United States, spreads its global arms around emerging countries and terrible diseases. The institute, located in Seattle's booming South Lake Union biomedical center, is emblematic of the region's resources to combat wasting infections of malaria and other pathogens. Founded in 1976 by Dr. Ken Stuart, SBRI is itself an organism for a better world.

• Washington state Treasurer Mike Murphy gave Seattle a sobering dose of reality when he was the first high-profile official to question the Seattle Monorail Project's bizarre financing scheme, including junk bonds. Nuts, he said, as he outlined potential repercussions for other agencies. He was right. In November, Seattle voters soundly rejected the off-track project.

• Retired Seattle banker Robert Arnold made a $15 million contribution toward brighter tomorrows at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Arnold's generosity and vision are grounded in his family's tradition of philanthropy and long support of medical science. His unrestricted grant will confidently fuel the newest, most speculative pursuits that are the hardest to fund.

• The 5th Avenue Theatre is delighting audiences in its 25th anniversary season thanks to a legacy of community support. The former vaudeville and movie palace closed in 1978, only to be reopened in June 1980 by individual and corporate sponsors. Key among them was insurance executive Roland "Milt" Trafton, who was a founder and chairman of the theater. Trafton, a generous and innovative benefactor, stabilized arts funding in Seattle. He died in January at 85.

• As president and CEO of the Seattle-based Casey Family Programs, Ruth Massinga has helped create the nation's largest foundation dedicated to providing, improving and ultimately preventing the need for foster care. For 16 years, Massinga has guided Casey's nationwide efforts, working with foster and adoptive parents who care for the more than 500,000 young people in out-of-home care.

• Kay Abe runs The Lord's Table, a coalition of church groups serving 300 meals a night to the homeless, literally by reaching into her pocket. The 77-year-old and her husband, Art, live off his retirement while devoting her $1,000-a-month pension to feeding the homeless.

Abe's selflessness grew out of her own life story: As a girl, she lived in a shelter after being released from a Japanese internment camp. Despite tangles with City Hall over her outdoor meals, Abe continues to serve the needy.

• With the opening of Lincoln Square in November, Kemper Freeman Jr. underlined the role he's played in the making of Bellevue's downtown. The owner of Bellevue Square and Bellevue Place, Freeman acquired and finished the uncompleted 1.2 million-square-foot Lincoln Square, which has a hotel, office building, condos and retail space.

If Lincoln Square is the underline to Freeman's influence, his Snowflake Lane show during the holiday season was the flourish. The magnificent, 15-minute nightly show that ended Christmas Eve included 60 live drummers, a light show and simulated snow.

• State Rep. Helen Sommers has represented Belltown, Magnolia, Queen Anne, Ballard and North Seattle for 33 years, so you could say she is just doing her job and doing it for a long time. But with Sommers, it's much more than that. She is a treasure to the state because of the dignified and savvy way she writes the state budget year after year. At 73, she could retire any time but it is hard to imagine a budget-writing session without her enormous grasp of how state budgets fit together, and her tireless advocacy of higher education.

• Chris and Alice Canlis not only host one of Seattle's most revered dining destinations, their support for FareStart contributed to the organization's $8 million capital campaign.

Proceeds from a $1,000-a-person dinner at the restaurant went to FareStart and its efforts to feed the homeless and provide job training in food services. FareStart and Canlis showcase Seattle at its best.