Philanthropists and community leaders Anne and Dick Schneider were honored as the Centrum Foundation’s 2017 Centrum Champions during one of this summer’s music festivals at Fort Worden State Park.

Each year, Centrum selects a deserving community volunteer, advocate, musician or artist to receive the award; a commemorative plaque for the award is permanently displayed in McCurdy Pavilion.

In announcing this award at the matinee performance of Jazz Port Townsend on July 29, Centrum executive director Robert Birman stated, “The Centrum Champion award recognizes exemplary support for Centrum, through volunteerism, charitable giving or leadership. In the case of our awardees today, it represents all three.

“The Port Townsend community is home to extraordinary community leaders and philanthropists. Anne and Dick Schneider have an unstinting commitment to artistic excellence and have invested themselves and their resources in countless nonprofit organizations in our region, from Centrum to the Northwest Maritime Center, The Jefferson County Community Foundation, the Land Trust and more. For these reasons and so many more, Centrum is deeply honored to announce Anne and Dick Schneider as Centrum Champions for 2017.”

The Schneiders join previous award winners Gary Kennedy (2015) and Peter McCracken (2016).