Today, we are pleased to announce that King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Gir­may Zahi­lay will be the open­ing speak­er at our 2022 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala, which will take place April 23rd at the South Belle­vue Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter.

King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Gir­may Zahi­lay (Por­trait cour­tesy of King County)

First elect­ed in 2019 to rep­re­sent the 2nd Dis­trict, Coun­cilmem­ber Zahi­lay is an alum of Franklin High School, Stan­ford, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia who has a long track record of suc­cess­ful com­mu­ni­ty organizing.

His com­mit­ment to inclu­sion inspired him to run for coun­ty council.

As he explains: “I ran for this seat because I believe in the promise of all our res­i­dents from our youth to our senior citizens.”

“I ran because in one of the wealth­i­est coun­ties of the wealth­i­est nation in the world, none of our neigh­bors should be too poor to live.”

“I believe that coun­ty gov­ern­ment must take a lead­er­ship role in build­ing afford­able hous­ing, fix­ing our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, pro­mot­ing envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, and pro­vid­ing reli­able access to transportation.”

“I want to change the pri­or­i­ties of our polit­i­cal sys­tem, give our com­mu­ni­ties greater access to gov­ern­ment, and fight for bold pro­gres­sive policies.”

Since join­ing the Coun­cil, Gir­may has cham­pi­oned suc­cess­ful changes to King Coun­ty’s plan of gov­ern­ment to make it eas­i­er for us to invest in pub­lic health and com­mu­ni­ty-based alter­na­tives to tra­di­tion­al policing.

He also put togeth­er the Mi’Chance Dun­lap-Git­tens Youth Rights Ordi­nance, which gives youth under eigh­teen the right to a pub­lic defend­er when the police ask them to waive their Miran­da rights.

And he secured pub­lic land for com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions to build a Youth Achieve­ment Cen­ter, a forth­com­ing hous­ing and resource hub for under­served youth in South Seattle.

Now halfway through his first term, he’ll update us on what King Coun­ty is doing to empow­er our com­mu­ni­ties to recov­er from the pan­dem­ic and ensure all young peo­ple have a future in the Pacif­ic North­west and beyond.

If you haven’t yet bought your tick­et to our 2022 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala yet, we urge you to do so now. A house­hold tick­et admits all the mem­bers of an imme­di­ate fam­i­ly and is a good val­ue if you plan to attend with oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers. You may attend either in-per­son or remotely.

If you choose to attend remote­ly, you’ll be able to watch the pro­gram live in HD, and min­gle before­hand with oth­er atten­dees par­tic­i­pat­ing online.

These are our tick­et rates:

• Indi­vid­ual ($100, admits one person)
• House­hold ($150, admits an entire family)
• Liv­ing Light­ly ($25, for stu­dents and activists on lim­it­ed incomes)

We care about the health and safe­ty of our team and all our sup­port­ers. Accord­ing­ly, you must be vac­ci­nat­ed and boost­ed against COVID-19 if you wish to attend the gala in-per­son. Alter­na­tive­ly, if you are unable to be vac­ci­nat­ed against COVID-19 for med­ical rea­sons, you must present proof of a neg­a­tive test tak­en imme­di­ate­ly pri­or to leav­ing your home to join us in Belle­vue. Addi­tion­al­ly, while inside the event space at the South Belle­vue Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter, you must wear a mask or res­pi­ra­tor. We will serve all food and drink out­side the event space on the ter­race, and you are wel­come to remove your mask or res­pi­ra­tor while outside.

Stu­dents who want to vol­un­teer to help put on the event can get in the door at no cost. If you’re inter­est­ed in vol­un­teer­ing, please get in touch with us.

In the days to come, we’ll be shar­ing more details about our 2022 gala, includ­ing addi­tion­al speak­ers. We hope you’ll help us make this great sea­son­al event a suc­cess by buy­ing your tick­et and com­mit­ting to attend.

See you on April 23rd!