Good morning, everyone.
Welcome to the 13th annual Pioneer Square Spring Clean
and the One Seattle Day of Service for 2023.
My name is Chris Woodward.
I'm the community development director
with the Alliance for Pioneer Square.
I'm going to briefly kick this off
with a land acknowledgment
and then pass it back to Lisa Howard, the executive
director of the Alliance for Pioneer Square.
We acknowledge that the this is the Indigenous land
of the ancestral sorry.
We acknowledge that this indigenous land, now
called Pioneer
Square, is the ancestral land of the Coast Salish people.
We recognize, honor and respect the Indigenous peoples
connected to this land, past, present and future.
Okay, so I'm going to pass over to Lisa Howard, the executive
director of the Alliance for Pioneer Square.
Thanks, Chris.
Taller than I am.
Thanks, everyone, for coming out this morning.
I am Lisa Howard, the executive director of the Alliance
for Pioneer Square.
And just to kick it off,
I want to start out with some thank you's.
First of all, thank you to our mayor, Bruce
Harrell, and team within the city for
organizing the One Day of Service
and allowing us to jump in with our spring clean,
to be able to clean up the neighborhood
in partnership with all of the other
neighborhoods across Seattle and to Seattle Public Utilities
and SDOT for helping to get
deep in the organization of this event.
A special
thank you to the Seahawks and First and Goal
for the monetary donation towards pulling this off to help
with food and all of the other event costs.
SDOT,
especially for the leading the First Avenue median project.
The sports, the Sports and Square project,
and that critical role of making sure
that we have the traffic control
that we need to pull off getting the medians up to
up to par this year.
Thank you to
LAZ Parking for the free parking for sprint clean volunteers.
If you parked in the Butler garage,
please stop by the registration
table at lunch to get your parking voucher.
And then next is just a thank you to all of you,
all of the volunteers showing up today
on your Saturday morning to help
make Pioneer Square a little bit better.
We really appreciate your time
and involvement
and just jumping in and being part of this community.
Okay.
We're going to have a short series of speakers
and then we're
going to give you instructions on breaking up into our groups.
And also, we're going to take a large group photo within that.
So hang with us for a little bit.
And we're going to start with Mayor Bruce Harrell.
Right.
Thank you, Lisa.
Hey, come on up. Come on up a little closer.
Let's go get this party said. Come on up.
Blue shirts One Seattle.
We're standing around. Come on up, please.
You know, I will beg.
Don't make me, it’s too early for me to beg.
Thank you, Family.
You know, we're standing around some royalty right now,
not talking about me.
We're talking. We got.
We got Mario Bailey over here. We got Jordan over here.
Come on out here, Jordan, come over here.
Mario.
Come on, man.
See. You ugly mugs make me look handsome.
I got my first cousin right here. Linda.
Come on up here, Linda.
Yes, right.
Now, my other first cousin coming up here.
Got family around here.
In all seriousness.
And we have I to my knowledge,
I don't know if he's the only three term mayor.
I don't know. Charlie Royer is right over here.
He no, he never stopped serving.
We talk about One Seattle.
This is what we're talking about.
I got to tell you, I think it's a funny story.
I hope I get a chuckle out of it.
So when I was a little kid, I played on a baseball team
and they put me on the team.
And that second, third game, I wasn't getting any
what these athletes called tick, playing time.
I was on the bench. And I said,
I said to the coach, I said, I'm going to quit.
And he says, Why is it that?
I got a uniform here?
I got a hat, I'm not playing, I'm not doing anything.
He said I got a special role for you.
He says.
When they when they're getting the bat, you give them the bat
and when they finish hitting,
you pick up the bat and you bring it back.
Well, I could do that.
And then I felt like I was part of the team
and I realized I was just the bat boy.
But but I was part of the team.
And so when we talk about One Seattle, we're talking about
whether you're high or low, any demographic, differently abled.
We are writing a new chapter in Seattle together.
We are writing
a new chapter in Seattle, we have 12 members here
that we're started.
We expanded our Seattle Ranger program.
They are 12 that are about three quarters
way through raise your hand, Rangers. So
note to self.
Make the Rangers wear blue shirts
like everyone else next year. No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
Those shirts symbolize a program that we started
and I want to publicly thank all of you for stepping up
for what we're trying to do in this Seattle.
When I talk about taking our city back,
it starts with you.
It starts with new ideas.
It starts with new energy, new energy,
new love, new commitments.
When we say we're writing a new chapter today,
for example, we have over 110 community partners.
Lisa mentioned a few of them.
Not just our athlete, our great athletic organizations,
but our companies that are step stepping up with their
with their employees. We have over 140 events.
We have the help of over 4000 volunteers.
We're uniting around common values and common purposes.
This toxicity must start.
You probably heard these statistics.
We are right now the second
destination for tourists right now.
The second
and check this out, number one is Orlando,
because they have Disney World and number three is Honolulu.
So you can't hate them for that.
I don't know how
we edged out Honolulu, because I would have checked Honolulu
and you might have read just two days ago,
We are the fast growing big city in America.
And I. Yes.
And we are a welcoming city.
We are a welcoming city.
And I say that to say this,
that when we grow, we worry about those
that are slipping through the cracks.
We worry about those we have to help.
So on our one Seattle effort, we will be defined by our
compassion, by our love, by our commitment, by our faith,
by our ability to help others that is in our DNA.
And as your mayor,
I'll make sure that our administration
helps us together, write this new chapter.
And when I see someone like our former
mayor, Charles Royer, sitting right here
coming out that embodies what we're trying to do,
pull together.
And I don't want to embarrass Mayor Royer anymore,
but I have to tell you that I'm not a lot younger than him, but
or should I say you're not a lot older than me.
How do you want to say this?
But as a young man,
I worked for the city, the city when he was mayor.
And one thing
I always appreciate, I never told you the story
that when he got on the elevator, he spoke to everybody.
I'm thinking, man, this dude's the mayor.
He's speaking to everybody.
And I always said, if I ever were fortunate
to become the mayor, I would never lose that common touch.
I will close by saying this.
Number one. Yes.
I was only supposed to speak for one minute. Yes, I'm over
because I get excited
writing this chapter with you in our city.
And I cannot thank you enough.
My heart comes from a spirit of humility.
One Seattle.
We're going to take our city back.
Thank you very much.
Oh, at 12:00 today til four, there's a free concert
at Denny Park in partnership with Amazon and Bumbershoot.
So there's a free concert at Denny Park between 12 and four.
I also want to thank.
Now, this what I was supposed to say.
Jamie, I've just got to get it in so you don't get mad at me.
I'm thanking representatives from the Seahawks.
The Sounders, OL Rain.
I've already thanked Lisa Howard.
We're writing a new chapter, oh, I said that part.
Okay.
I love you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
And next up, we have David Young, COO of the Seahawks
and First and Goal.
Thanks, everyone.
I don't know how who put me
on the agenda after the mayor to follow that.
That's this is going to be a tough one
but clearly a testament to the energy and the excitement
and the vision.
So thank you, Mayor Harrell, thank you to the mayor's office
for putting this event together
and putting it together again this year
and your vision for One Seattle.
So thank you very much, Mayor Harrell.
We're happy to be here.
We're so proud to be here
as the Seahawks and First and Goal
as just another neighbor here in the neighborhood.
We've got a lot of members of our organization here today.
You saw Jordan and Mario up here,
a lot of our front office
and executive team here today to fan out across the
the community.
And I see
so many volunteers here
that are ready to go out into the community and
and really give back to the city of Seattle.
And to me, that's really what makes our city unique
and special is this commitment
and this idea that we all come together
and that we give back to our community.
And it's so special.
And I really think also that sport is a big part of that.
And of course I would, right?
But I do believe that sports brings people together
and this is such a special place.
And, you know, as
you know, having our home right here at Lumen Field,
at the center of these three historic neighborhoods, Pioneer
Square, Chinatown International District, and SODO.
We bring a lot of folks into these into these communities
through both our events that we host at the building,
whether that's in the Lumen Field,
Lumen Field Event Center, in the WaMu
theater, the sporting events that go on every year.
There's hundreds of events,
millions of visitors every single year.
And we recognize at the Seahawks and First and Goal,
the commitment that that we owe back to our community
and back to the neighborhoods to give back
and so whether that's through
the volunteer opportunities like today,
whether that's through
our Community Concessions program, that brings
small businesses from the neighborhoods
into Lumen Field to serve food to our fans, which
those are our highest rated
concession stands in Lumen Field, actually,
or whether it's through our Community
Partnership Forum that brings the neighborhoods
together at Lumen Field to discuss issues
related to the neighborhoods and foster dialog.
We recognize,
as all of you do as well, the responsibility to give back.
And we're proud to be here today.
The One Seattle Day of Service to us is that opportunity
to give back to the neighborhoods,
to give back to the community and to the businesses
that so graciously welcome us in.
So we're excited to be here today.
We're happy to see all of you.
And we can't wait to see the impact that we all make here
locally and across our city to make Seattle a great place
for all of us.
Thank you.
Thank you for being here.
All right.
Thank you. David.
Next up, we have Maya Mendoza-Exstrom with the Seattle
Sounders.
Seattle Sounders FC has a mission,
and that is to create moments,
enrich lives and unify through soccer.
That is, it also includes a commitment
to make our community stronger and more equitable.
Our family of fans and players and staff
inhabit these neighborhoods all of the time,
and they are sacred spaces to us.
If Lumen Field’s our fortress, this is our dinner table.
This is the place that our fans come to.
And so there's no better place
for us to engage with One Seattle Day of Service
than in Chinatown-International
District right here in Pioneer Square.
And as David mentioned, SODO and SODO
ah the SODO business district south of the stadium.
As we look to convene the world
in 2026, these neighborhoods matter more than ever.
Our fans from all over the world will get to eat
where we eat, walk where we walk,
play where we play all, all the time, every year
as part of Sounders FC and the soccer legacy.
And we are
ready to share this amazing culture, this amazing heritage
with fans from all over the world.
So thank you so much for being here.
If you didn't see the QR codes when you checked in,
Thank you for volunteering here today.
Scan the QR code.
We'll get you some tickets to Sounders FC match this summer.
So thanks for being here.
We're we're proud to be here with you.
Thank you, Maya.
And if you have trouble finding those barcodes
because I know they're hidden,
just go ask at the registration table.
We'll get you hooked up.
Next, we have Michelle Haines, the VP
of Marketing at the OL Rain.
Good morning, everyone.
It is so wonderful to see all of these amazing faces here
today.
I just really want to
thank you for welcoming us to this community
where the newest member at Lumen Field
and in this neighborhood and we have experienced
such warmth and welcome and authenticity
and just the full feeling of community here.
So I'm so proud to be here today representing OL Rain
and being a part of this incredible neighborhood.
I don't know how many of you are familiar with what we do
off the pitch, but we are a team that plays with purpose
and that is on and off the field.
So an event like today really resonates with us
and is something
that means so much to our players
who enjoy all the businesses here, to our fans
who descend down here before a game,
take it all in, and also to our club.
This neighborhood means so much to us, so I thank you.
I thank Lisa and the alliance for what they're doing today.
Thank you, Mr.
Mayor, and thank you, Seahawks and Sounders
for being such great friends and neighbors and supporters.
Welcome today and we'll
see you out there soon.
All right, one more.
So I hang with this for just a second.
Councilmember Andrew Lewis say a few comments as well.
Hello. Hi.
Good morning, everybody.
You're excited
to get out there and help clean up Pioneer Square?
This is great.
I want to be very, very brief.
I really appreciate the opportunity
to come back here for this annual day of service.
You know,
now that we've done two of these,
it is officially annual and we're going to keep doing this
and I look forward to seeing you next year.
Same place, same time.
You know,
the progress that we've made over
the course of the last year has been good to see.
We've got this cohort of park rangers now.
This is the first time I've seen you guys out in the field.
Raise your hands again to be recognized.
When Mayor Harrell and I were working on
putting the Metropolitan Park
District together and that idea was on paper.
It's just so great to see it
in person to see you guys out here,
to see you guys ready
to roll up your sleeves and make our open spaces
clean, safe and open for everybody.
Thank you so much for your service.
You know, I look at Pioneer Square
and see the people that are making up its recovery.
And we've got Robert back here from Butterfly Coffee, who's
been catering.
Raise your hands, waving the American flag.
Robert, who took a risk, who moved into a storefront
on Third Avenue in the basement of the Morrison
and has been keeping it going ever since, was here last year,
catering here, catering again this year, next year
is going to be back in the same place.
Robert, thank you for your commitment
to Pioneer Square and our recovery.
I am so excited
to spend this morning with you to continue
that progress that has led us to having
a new park ranger cohort, to having Robert
I see Emily Kim over here with the pastry.
Emily with The Pastry Project over here,
who has been a really great advocate of getting Pioneer
Square back on its feet.
Together we are going to come together,
we're going to get this done.
We're going to keep up the progress
and the work to bring Seattle back.
And One Seattle, Let's get out there.
Let's get it done.
Thank you.
Okay.
Got to do one more shout out for the staff
and the board of the Alliance for Pioneer Square.
Thank you for putting this together today.
We couldn't do this without you.
Really appreciate all of the volunteer hours
that make this work all year long.
And now I'm going to pass it over to Chris.
You have to listen very
carefully to him because we need to get a group photo
and there are some specific instructions. So.
All right, thanks. I'll we'll get this kicked off.
We'll get you off in your work groups and get going.