19 Winners Chosen From Over 7,000 Entries From 97 Countries

Atlanta, GA - September 20, 2004 - The Power of Purpose Awards: A Worldwide Essay Competition sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, announced its winners today. The John Templeton Foundation is internationally renowned for its annual Templeton Prize. A total of $500,000 in prizes was awarded to the 19 winners at a ceremony in New York City.

The world’s largest prize for a written essay of $100,000 was awarded to August Turak, a businessman and philosophy teacher in Raleigh, North Carolina who wrote a true story about a gentle Monk. Brother John tells the story of how the example of some Trappist monks in South Carolina challenged the author to examine his own life and commitment to a higher purpose.

The international winners were chosen by a distinguished panel of judges from many disciplines, including: Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book The Purpose-Driven Life; Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation; Hugh Delehanty, editor-in-chief of AARP Publications; Paul Davies, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Australian Centre for Astrobiology; and Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund.

“I don’t know who is more excited, the winners or us.” said Michael Reagan, Essay Project Director. “The response to the awards has been extremely gratifying - almost 7500 essays from 97 countries worldwide. We are elated, so proud of our winners, and grateful to everyone who entered.” The contest had the largest number of entries for an international on-line essay contest ever.

The awards include one grand prize of $100,000; four awards of $50,000; four awards of $25,000; ten awards of $10,000. The winners are…

$100,000 Grand Prize: August Turak. Raleigh, North Carolina – Brother John
The true story of how the author’s contemplative retreat to a Trappist monastery turns both magical and terrible when a simple monk offers to share an umbrella on a cold and rainy Christmas Eve. This simple act of loving-kindness proves almost more than he can bear, and becomes the catalyst for a gut wrenching re-evaluation of life, love, and the terrible yet fascinating nature of God.
Page 2 – Power of Purpose Essay Winners

$50,000: Four Awards To:
Struan Stevenson, MEP, Girvan, United Kingdom – Crying Forever
A moving account of the people he met in Semipalatinsk in 2003, the area of East Kazakhstan where the Soviets carried out over 600 nuclear tests between 1949 and 1990, using the half million local population as human guinea pigs. Stevenson explores the daily life of these communities, their suffering, pain and sense of hopelessness as they struggle to survive in a polluted environment.

Dr. Mitch Abblett, Newton, Mass – The Face Collector
A combat veteran has carried a heavy burden of pain and guilt since the Vietnam War. He finds atonement and a mission in life through his work as a photographer, and through teaching others about the power of caring, empathic contact with others.

Leslie Larson, Berkeley, California - Grace
The eloquent story of a seventy-four-year-old woman who struggles to learn to read and write. And not just to write, but to write poetry. Her patience and perseverance overcome a barrage of obstacles—-including the fading enthusiasm of her twenty-something tutor.

Dr. Alan Hirshfeld, Newton, Mass - How Wonderfully We Stand Upon This World
In 19th-century England, unschooled bookbinder Michael Faraday overcame almost impossible economic and class obstacles to become the greatest experimental scientist of his time. Faraday sought to understand the natural world in the belief that the revealed knowledge would nourish the collective soul of humanity. His legacy is nothing less than our own technological society.

$25,000: Four Awards To:
Randall Frame, Wayne, Pennsylvania – Fixing Haiti
A young man's true encounter with a child at risk of starvation leads to a new realization about life's priorities.

Elizabeth Orndorff, Danville, Kentucky- The Bathroom Cleaner
Inspired by a newspaper column which told of the Colored Women’s Clubs of the 1930s through the 1950s in Lexington, Kentucky, one of which “maintained” a bathroom in a beauty shop for use by colored folks who had no other place to go.

Stephen Pimentel, Annandale, Virginia -The Natural Order and the Human Mind
Mankind has always observed a profound order within nature, leading to the
belief that nature is fundamentally intelligible and purposeful. The early modern philosophy of positivism rejected this belief, holding that the order of nature is merely a brute fact. However, the advance of science has revealed ever-deeper levels of order, and thus rationality, within nature. A fundamental indicator of purpose in nature is the genetically encoded information-processing that takes place in living beings, which ultimately permits human reflection on that very purpose.

Fruma Klass, Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania - Streets of Mud, Streets of Gold
A hundred years ago an immigrant family comes to America, with only an overwhelming sense of purpose to direct them.

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$10,000: Ten Awards To:
John Casteel, Traverse City, Michigan - The Skating Rink

Carol Franks, Portland, Oregon - What Ever Happened to Chris Olsen?

Dr. Stan Goldberg, San Francisco, California - Fixing? Helping? Or Serving?

Kenneth Hartman, Lancaster, California - A Prisoner’s Purpose

Bennett Johnston, Sausalito, California - Listening to Purpose

Lisa McMann, Mesa, Arizona - The Day of the Shoes

Esther North, Gibons, British Columbia, Canada - Who Will Be Joseph?

Diane Pleninger, Anchorage, Alaska - Footprints of Purpose

C. Kevin Smith, Big Sur, California - The Stone Bird

Douglas Wesselmann, Walnut, Iowa - The Goodness of Trees

The competition included published and unpublished material from both professional and amateur writers. The Awards were designed to encourage people to think about the benefits of noble purpose where purpose is defined as something more important than our simple survival, something not merely intellectual, but in our souls. Entries could include personal reflections, journalistic reports, scientific papers, or inspirational works of fiction. The contest was launched in November of last year and accepted submissions through May of this year.

About the John Templeton Foundation…

The mission of the John Templeton Foundation (www.templeton.org) is to support programs, competitions, publications and studies in the human sciences and in character education that promote the exploration of the spiritual nature of the human person. The research is guided by Sir John Templeton’s unyielding optimism that there is much to learn from examining the nature and benefits of such principles as purpose, creativity, gratitude and altruism.

PLEASE GO TO WWW.POWEROFPURPOSE.ORG TO READ
THE 19 WINNING ESSAYS AND TO READ ABOUT THE WINNING WRITERS