Business Person of the Year Luncheon Come and fete Charlie and Carolyn Frame at the Business Couple of the Year Luncheon, 11:30 a.m. May 22 at Wing Point Golf & Country Club. Cost: $25. Registration, (206) 842-3700.

Like so many people before them, Charlie and Carolyn Frame of CFA Northwest Mortgage Professionals first viewed Bainbridge Island from the bow of their boat.

“We really loved it,” recalled Charlie. “It was such a nautical place.” Added Carolyn, “The lifestyle, the community, the quiet — it was so serene.”

That was in 1990. Thirteen years later, the Frame’s are still in love with Bainbridge Island, but in their wake they have left a legacy of philanthropic giving and community involvement that is nearly unprecented among small business people.

The Frames have unabashedly contributed to an array of island and Kitsap County causes, from the Bainbridge Island Boys and Girls Club and Habitat for Humanity to the Rotary Auction, youth sports and many, many others. In addition, CFA Northwest Mortgage Professionals is one of the region’s fastest growing companies, helping the local economy by hiring people and expanding its operations beyond our boarders.

For those accomplishments, and the fact that they are friendly, approachable and giving people, the Frame’s have been named the Chamber of Commerce’s Business Couple of the Year for 2003. They will be honored at a special luncheon ceremony May 22 at Wing Point Golf & Country Club.

“This is the first community where we have lived where we’ve been totally involved in the community,” says Carolyn, flashing her infectious smile. Carolyn grew up in Lewiston, Idaho and spent nearly three decades as a banker in Seattle. Charlie visited Seattle in 1969 on a vacation from his native Detroit and never returned.

Neither one of them attended college, instead earning their way in the world the old fashioned way — by doing. “We read what you can to better yourself, motivational stuff,” he says. “We go to seminars, trade shows, workshops. The idea is to saturate yourself in what you’re doing.”

The Frames draw additional inspiration from sales and motivational speakers such as Tony Robbins and financial success tomes such as “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.”

Carolyn left Security Pacific Bank in 1991 after 27 years to start her mortgage business. She started out as a sole proprietor, but the business quickly took off. Three years ago, she merged her operations with Walt Hannawacker’s Northwest Mortgage Professionals and business “really started growing.”

Today, CFA Northwest Mortgage Professionals has 60 employees in offices on Bainbridge, Silverdale, Juneau, Alaska, San Jose and Gig Harbor. The company is planning to expand to markets in Arizona, Nevada and Idaho in the next years.

“We’re the only (financial) company in Kitsap County with our own underwriter and funder,” says Carolyn. “We’re 75 percent mortgage banker and 25 percent mortgage brokers.” The company was recently ranked among the top mortgage lenders in the country.

While Carolyn was setting up her island business, Charlie was continuing his career on the other side of the water as manager of Baker Commodities, a Tukwila-based rendering plant. He was also very actively involved in the communities his company served, sponsoring events such as a Highway 99 clean-up, drug-free high school graduation parties, Little League teams and helping form the Success Foundation for kids.

Charlie’s involvement earned him the Southwest King County Chamber’s first-ever Business Leader of the Year award in 1997. Three years later Charlie retired from Baker Commodities and began helping Carolyn with her business, and becoming more involved in a number of Bainbridge Island causes.

Giving back is second nature to the Frame’s. Charlie’s former company helped buy the first fire truck for newly christened City of Tukwila. On the island, Carolyn and Charlie have invested more than $70,000 over the years into establishing the Boys and Girls Club. They also been very active in supporting Habitat for Humanity — helping to start the organization in Kitsap County and underwriting fundraisers — Health, Housing & Human Services, Helpline House, the Homebuilders Association of Kitsap County, Babe Ruth teams and others.

During the Christmas season, the Frame’s traditionally sponsor families through Helpline, providing food, gifts and other support. One year, a woman who was a little down on her luck told Carolyn, “‘I’ll be in need of your services soon.’ Within a year, we helped get them a loan.”

Next month, Charlie will chair the Bainbridge Island Rotary Club’s famous Rotary Auction at Woodward Middle School. An avid pilot, he relishes taking underprivileged kids on airplane rides as part of the “Young Eagles” program he’s involved with.

“Even when things were tough (in the early days of starting CFA Mortgage), we still gave,” Charlie recalls. “It’s a philosophy we have — It’s a hands on approach. Isn’t that what it’s all about?”

Others receiving consideration included: Michael and Alexa Rosenthal of Island Fitness; Barbara Tolliver, co-owner of The Traveler; Vicki Rauh of the Chamber of Commerce; Wes King and Andrea Roby, owners of Roby King; Bess Alpaugh, former president of American Marine Bank; former City Councilman Merrill Robison; Barbara McGilvray, Jane Allen and Eileen Magnuson, co-directors of the Senior Center; Eddie Rollins, former American Marine Bank executive; and, Jeff Brien, co-owner of the Pavilion and other business enterprises.