At the Golden Hour on Thursday, March 25, the Solid Ground community celebrated the past year’s brightest moments, raising over $200,000 to solve poverty.

“It’s been a year filled with grief and new, compounding challenges for everyone,” said co-host Phoenica Zhang of Solid Ground at the event. “But even among those darkest times, we’ve seen communities come together in new ways to shine – and show amazing resilience and amazing brilliance. We’ve seen people adapt, innovate, and care for and uplift each other in new ways. And that’s what we want to celebrate today!”

The program featured video stories shining a light on Solid Ground-led efforts to build community around online cooking classes, amplify program participant voices in a successful campaign to raise $900,000 for King County rental assistance, and support the next generation of civic leaders. We also held a brief interview with Solid Ground’s new CEO, Shalimar Gonzales, who shared some impressions from her first two months on the job and her hopes for the future.

“Next time you see me, I’ll be uplifting / Yes I will give you hope / I am learning as I go to shine on!” ~from event theme song ‘Shine On‘ by May Erlewine

Shalimar reflected, “In 2020, at a time when there would have been every opportunity for people in the organization to just say, ‘It’s too much’ … to see a team of folks be able to step into that space – into that gap – and say, ‘No, we need to do this, because there is so much riding on it, there is so much need out there, and the need continues to get greater.’ When I think of the mission and impacts of Solid Ground, those are the things that bring me in to work every single day.”

Local music legend and co-host Wanz shared his experience as a volunteer youth mentor, and community partners talked about why they work with Solid Ground to solve poverty. The program closed with an amazing musical performance by our talented co-hosts that you don’t want to miss! You can watch a replay of the event and individual videos (posted below) shown on our Golden Hour with Solid Ground webpage. And of course, we are still accepting donations to help push us over our fundraising goal – so please do consider adding your light once you get there!

Solid Ground is so grateful for the support from our sponsors and event partners, who underwrote the cost of the event and contributed to community brilliance and resilience. We are humbled by and so appreciative of their support of our annual event through its pivot into the virtual realm!

A special shoutout to our partners at Vulcan, for their support in bringing Art Club and the Golden Hour to life. With the partnership of amazing BIPOC artists and the Seattle Public Library, Art Club helped the young people at our Sand Point Housing community SHINE with creativity and leadership!

This special event and all of the moments that culminated in the Golden Hour wouldn’t have been possible without support from our brilliant event partners:

And thanks to all our brilliant Voice Raiser partners and other supporters!

… with additional support from Columbia Bank

Image at top: The Golden Hour closed with a fabulous duet by co-hosts Phoenica and Wanz, bringing the event to a brilliant close. (video still)