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Joe James (at left) was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr., to create opportunities for black farmers in the South. Arlene Blum was outraged when she discovered the chemical that she had fought to have removed from children's sleepwear was showing up in furniture. Watching his older son receive a law degree, Catalino Tapia was filled with an overwhelming desire to enable other children of Latino immigrants to go to college.

The six $100,000 winners of The Purpose Prize told of different paths to their world-changing roles as they accepted their awards on December 6, but their stories shared a common theme: All would stop at nothing in order to change the system.

“If you’re not making trouble out there, you’re not getting the job done,” said Mark Goldsmith, a former marketing executive who now coaches male inmates at Riker’s Island in skills needed for life after prison. Goldsmith recalled his surprise when a warden praised his efforts, saying, “We don’t know why they’re listening to a white man in a suit, but they’re listening to you.” They were listening to him, Goldsmith said, because “nobody ever talks to these young men.”

Some seemed humbled and even shocked by all the attention, such as Jock Brandis, who credited a “sub-prime mortgage on my slowly rotting home” with financing the peanut sheller he invented that has boosted the income of farmers in 17 countries. He had the crowd in stitches as he described his previous career as a film lighting director.

"I remember the Christmas that my son was given a copy of a book that listed the 100 worst movies ever made. He and my daughter went throught it, counting the ones with my names in the credits. In a few moments, they passed judgment on my 20 years of ever improved ways of showing psychopaths breaking into co-ed dorms with chainsaws. Life became driving TV sports broadcast trucks across America, taking the back roads to avoid the weigh scales."

He surmised, “These are interesting times, tailor made for encore careers" and urged others to “cut loose and have a little fun.”

Some winners became emotional. “I’m going to cry. I always cry when I’m happy,” Arlene Blum said quietly, almost to herself, before she began to tell her remarkable story of battling toxic chemicals in consumer products. A renowned mountain climber known for leading the first women’s teams up the slopes of Denali and Annapurna, she said, “What I’m doing now feels like my most important expedition.”

Catalino Tapia, a gardener who convinced other gardeners and his clients to support a scholarship program for low-income Latinos, beamed a broad smile at the crowd and described his dream “that every child not only in the U.S. but in the world has the opportunity for education.”

Joe James, honored for helping black farmers become part of the “green” economy, was elated as he described winning a key approval this week for a new process of creating biofuel. “So when the skeptics ask whether you, too, can have an encore career, what do you say?” “Yes we can!” responded the crowd.

Michele McRae, whose retirement from college teaching lasted all of three weeks, exuded compassion and confidence as she explained how she convinces volunteers to help refugees adjust to new lives in Fargo, N.D. “We’ve had people say, ‘Are you crazy? You think I’m going to help that person?’ And yet, little by little, things change,” she said.

The evening was ably hosted by Lester Strong, chief development officer of the BELL Foundation and a Civic Ventures board member. He introduced Kimon Sargeant of the John Templeton Foundation, who pronounced The Purpose Prize as one of his favorite projects, and Yvonne Hunt of Hewlett Packard, who noted, “Some of our own HP executives have become Encore Fellows this year.” Hunt proposed keeping up with younger cell-phone addicts by sending text messages inspired by encore careers: MECTW (Mature Entrepreneurs Changing the World) and ECR (Encore Careers Rock).

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot of Harvard University delivered a keynote address based on her new book, The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk and Adventures in the 25 Years After 50. Over three years, she interviewed 40 individuals and concluded, “We are forging a new and distinctive chapter in our lives.” She calls this new stage of life “looking back and giving forward” to explain the process of looking back to the values taught while growing up and matching them with the life-learned skills to create a unique gift. “Let us go forth with deep gladness and meet the world’s hunger,” she urged.

Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Civic Ventures, capped off the evening, by joking, “We’ve got the tagline for The Purpose Prize: troublemakers for the greater good. What’s your encore? Go out and make trouble.”