Thank you for being here this afternoon.
We are all walking billboards right now.
A lot to advertise.
I want to start before I do my advertisement, to thank Lumen
Field and FIFA for allowing us to be here today.
During all the excitement of the Club World Cup,
we are rooting for the Sounders at the next match tomorrow?
No, tomorrow on June 18th, around
3:00.
And I'm going to try my best to be here to support.
I want to thank Patty Camacho, our operations manager
in our office, for being the project lead on the day of service.
July 12th July 12th, 2025 will mark our fourth annual day of service.
And again, during the World Cup experience,
we want to get the buzz going.
It's 85 degrees right now, in our minds at least.
But it's a beautiful summer day
and we are excited about what's going on in our city right now.
With the
2026 World Cup on the horizon, Seattle has once
as a once in a generation opportunity to show the world who we are.
We're proud of who we are.
We are a welcoming city.
We treasure our differences because it leads us
toward the path to commonality,
brings out the best in one another.
As you can see during the World Cup competition.
Close match.
But it still brought out the best in us .
Our day of service.
Let me talk a little a little bit about that again.
July 12th, 2025.
All over the city, all over our 84mi², 1800 volunteer opportunities.
We want you to participate
55 events right now, and we're adding them on as we speak.
We want to be a part of this.
Just sign up on sale.gov day of service.
And the why is very important.
The why is now is the time to be very intentional about building community.
Now is the time to meet new friends, to new, to understand what we have in common.
We're very intentional about building Seattle in a one Seattle manner.
One Seattle community. We can disagree.
We can have differences of opinion, but
we are more alike than we are different when we fight for each other.
When we fight against climate change, when we fight for educational opportunities,
when we fight against income inequality, when we fight against racism,
when we embrace immigrant and refugees, when we embrace
LGBTQ plus neighbors, that's what we have in common.
So our day of service is a day of celebration.
Events will include park beautification, picking up litter, grit, graffiti
abatement, community gardening, food
donations, everything that we like to do.
We've partnered with dozens of public and private and community groups
to help host these tremendous events, including Amazon and Molly Moon's
Rover, the Chinatown International District, IT,
Mary's Place, Solid Ground, Roberta Bird Bar Place, Visit Seattle, and many more.
Again, all hands on deck.
So again sign up acl.gov day of services July 12th is right around the corner,
and if you're a small business or community organization,
a family and neighborhood leader, if you want to be involved,
there's still time to join and join the fun.
Please visit our website.
So I'm going to introduce Jennifer Chao, our Department of Neighborhoods,
who was here today with her amazing community engagement coordinators.
She's going to.
And by the way, if you come and help, you can get one of these cool shirts.
And if you're really cool, you might be able to get a black one like that.
I present you to Jennifer Chao.
Thank you, Mayor
Harrell, for your vision, leadership, and commitment to Up uniting,
uplifting our communities and uniting us through shared service.
And thank you to our Community Engagement Coordinators for joining me here today
and your tireless work to build collaborations
with community members in service of the Seattle One Seattle Vision.
I want to give a special shout out to my chic
and to Patty Camacho,
who is leading this effort with the mayor's office
in coordination of this year's Day of Service.
The Day of Service is
a powerful way to build stronger communities and create a culture
of kindness and compassion in our city through acts of service.
It is through this service that we build belonging, inclusion
and shared responsibility for the stewardship of this land.
No single individual or group can solve the challenges we face in our city.
It takes all of us residents, local leaders,
businesses, community groups and government serving alongside
each other to make a better place for everyone who lives, works, and plays here.
I invite every one of you to join us for this day of service
as we work together as One Seattle to strengthen our communities
and build deeper connections with our neighbors.
Next, I'd like to invite up someone who has been a little busy
planning another huge event.
You may have heard of.
Please welcome Peter Thomas, our Chief Executive Officer of the local
organizing committee for FIFA 2026 World Cup in Seattle.
Great
job, Jennifer, and thank you for that very kind introduction.
I couldn't be more excited to be here today to help
announce the one day of service for 2025.
But of course, we are working our way towards 2026.
With the FIFA World Cup coming here.
And our focus has always been about community building, community engagement.
And getting our communities together.
And that's really the whole point of why, Bruce,
we went out and try to get the World Cup here.
And it's just an honor to be here to talk about the one day of service.
But it's really about being in service of Seattle every day.
And, you know, I think one of the things that we have done
is we've worked so hard to put Seattle on the global map.
This past weekend, mayor Harrell came out and celebrated,
with us to break a Guinness Book of World record.
I mean, how many times can people say that we had the world's largest soccer
clinic with 1038 people at our beautiful new waterfront?
It shined like no other asset could shine.
It showed the world how beautiful we are.
They call it the move to Seattle weather.
Well, it was definitely move to Seattle weather on Sunday.
But these activities really reflect
our commitment to helping revitalize the downtown of Seattle.
That is the number one mission that we have with the World Cup,
is to work on that.
Not only we're going to do it for Seattle, but we're going to bring it
the event across the state.
But really, when we sat down, Bruce and we talked about
what could this World Cup do for the city of Seattle specifically,
and the his priorities is really to make that one Seattle a reality,
a revitalization of our city and our spirit.
And that's really why I love the whole one day of service concept, an idea.
I congratulate all of you, Jennifer, for putting this whole event together.
It's an event, yes, but it's actually
a mindset that we build with our community
to take care of our communities and bring them all together.
The coordination between the city, the mayor's office,
our local organizing committee is going to make this experience awesome.
It's going to make the experience in 2026 awesome.
But we're really setting up for the next 20 years for the awesome
comeback of our city from where we were before.
Whether you're a resident, a visitor,
an international visitor, you will be welcome in our city.
It's going to be safe.
We're going to work around inclusion and a super vibrant Seattle.
So this day of service will help us prepare to welcome the world.
It's really about creating that mindset of welcoming
and a mindset of pride around where we live.
And so there are many different activities.
I just heard the mayor list off.
There's something for everyone.
I am a resident of downtown Seattle.
I will definitely be there.
And making this a great city.
So once again, Mayor Herrell, thank you for your leadership and support.
It's awesome.
And for making the day of service that reflects our shared values
and the pride in our city.
With that, I'd like to introduce, a very,
very dear friend and great person.
Steve Zakuani.
Steve Zakuani was one of the instructors that worked 1038
people really, really hard.
We actually had 1087, but we actually had people
that actually had to leave because it was so hard.
But they worked for 30 minutes straight
to make this world record happen, that this is dedication.
There were people as young as four to people as young as 75.
And Steve worked them hard.
Steve told me he's lived in Seattle for 16 years.
So by my math, he came here to play for the Sounders when he was eight years old.
So with that, I would like to bring up Steve Zarqawi, who's just an amazing asset
for our city, an ambassador.
I'll just say a few words.
You know, I moved here, 16 years ago to play for the Sounders
with the goal of being the best athlete and player that I could be.
But one of the things I became very clear early on was how much this area cares
about community.
And the Sounders really impressed upon me and all of us to take community
seriously, to get out there and to volunteer.
So on almost every day of encouraged to go and do something
where we visit a hospital, a food bank, whatever the case may be,
and I've never lost that is part of our DNA.
Because volunteering for me, it's not just about giving, it's about building.
And when we step up to serve in our local communities,
we help create environments where everyone feels supported and feels very welcomed.
And so I think having a day dedicated aside, it stops
calls us to just pause, stop and remember what's really important in life.
And that's being a part of something bigger than ourselves.
Obviously, being an athlete,
I was always part of a team working towards bigger community goals,
and that's what I think this day is very important.
So I encourage everyone, whatever it is you do, whatever station you hold in life
to go there, roll your sleeves up and get involved
and help make our community as great as it is.
Even better.
On a personal level, volunteering enriches
our lives, offers purpose, perspective, and connection.
And as I said, it reminds us that with something bigger than ourselves,
you know, I stopped playing for the sound as many years ago now.
But I've stuck around here for a reason,
and many of my former teammates were from all over the world.
We've made Seattle and the great Seattle area our homes
because we were so welcome to this community.
And so it's imperative, and it's on us to also give back to that community.
And I'm sure many of you also feel the same.
So let's go there.
Whatever is you can do.
Nothing's too big, nothing's too small.
Just get involved in some way and just continue to make Seattle really,
really great.
And of course,
we have the amazing tournament taking place right now, the FIFA Club World Cup.
And and next year, the FIFA World Cup is coming here.
We were chosen as one of 16 host cities,
and I think it's a great opportunity for us to show why we were chosen.
And it is about the soccer on the field, but it's also about who we are as people
and how we make everyone feel very welcome. Thank you.
Thank you.
Steve
You know, I've done a few events with Steve now, and I have to say,
I love what he says
and how it sounds like music. Yes.
Gifted speaker.
I want to thank everyone again for being here.
And if there are any questions, I'd entertain a few.
And if there's not, again, I'm looking forward to July 21st.
I'm sorry, 12.
So that's just making sure I know one two.
Remember that one two
all over the all over the 84mi² of the city.
Thank you for being here.
And again, if there are any questions, I'll entertain a few.
And if there's not, I'm going to do our classic countdown.
And that would always be three
two building one Seattle.
Thank you very much.