By Loria Yeadon, President & CEO, YMCA of Greater Seattle
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when the Union Army showed up in Galveston, Texas to deliver and enforce to news to the last enslaved people , that they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. That gap between a promise made and a promise kept is at the heart of Juneteenth. This national holiday reminds us that freedom is never free and is rarely delivered all at once, and that the gapping chasm between what is declared and what is lived must be bridged by people who refuse to look away.
This year, as our nation continues to reckon with owning its history, that lesson feels especially urgent. Juneteenth remains a day worth recognizing, not as a backward glance, but as a call to keep building. The disparities that shaped the origins of this national day of remembrance have not disappeared. What has also endured is the resilience, creativity, and joy of Black communities who turned a delayed freedom into a tradition of celebration and forward motion with a belief that freedom may be delayed but never denied.
At the YMCA of Greater Seattle, that forward motion is our work. As we mark 150 years of serving this region, we hold a simple conviction: a community is only as strong as its commitment to those who have been left at the margins. Juneteenth gives that conviction a name and day of remembrance.
Few efforts capture this better than Cinematique: Fostering Community and Connection, a partnership we are proud to share with Essex Community Outreach Corporation. Cinematique exists to surround foster and underserved youth and families with connection, resources, and a sense of belonging, while wrapping them in resources to improve educational and health outcomes. Last year, this event served more than 1,800 people, brought together dozens of nonprofits and resource providers, and welcomed families from across our region. This gathering is a powerful example of what happens when neighbors decide that no child should navigate the world without support and that we all are responsible for the wellbeing of other people’s children.
This year, Cinematique grows again. On Saturday, August 29, families will gather for a Back to School Resource Fair at Seattle City Hall starting at 10 am, where they will find tools and essentials to start the school year with confidence, connection, and care. From there, the celebration moves to Lumen Field, where families will be guests at the Seattle Sounders FC match against Chicago Fire FC. This day is designed around a single idea: that joy and opportunity belong to everyone, and that they are best experienced together.
The thread connecting Juneteenth to Cinematique is the same thread that has run through our mission for a century and a half. Freedom is not only the absence of bondage. Freedom is the presence of possibility, the chance to learn, to play, to be well, and to belong, and the opportunity to thrive. When we register a young person for their first season of summer camp, when we open a pool to a child who has never had the chance to swim, when we walk alongside a foster family during a season of transition, we are doing the work that Juneteenth is calling us all forward to do for the benefit of community wellbeing.
This vital work is not finished, and was never meant to be done alone. The story of Juneteenth is, at its core, a story about neighbors who recognized that none of us is free until we all are free, and refused to give up on one another. We invite you to be part of that story.
Join us. Connect with the YMCA of Greater Seattle and our Social Impact Center, which walks alongside foster youth, families, and young people across our region. Stand with us at Cinematique on August 29 as we welcome foster and underserved youth and families. Show up at a Juneteenth celebration in your own neighborhood. Every act of community caring for community moves us closer to the freedom this day envisions.
One hundred and fifty years in, our promise is the same. We will keep showing up, keep building, and keep believing that a more just and joyful community is possible when we decide and pursue it together.
In community and gratitude,
Loria Yeadon | President & CEO, YMCA of Greater Seattle
