Cinematique 2026 Recap

14th Annual · Fostering Community and Connection

Saturday, August 29, 2026 · Seattle City Hall

1,400 Families Walked Through Downtown Seattle. For Most, It Was a First.

On Saturday, August 29, the 14th Annual Cinematique filled Seattle City Hall with foster and underserved families from across the Puget Sound region — and then walked them, together, to Lumen Field.

The day started before the city was awake. At 7:00 AM, families were in the water at the Downtown YMCA for water safety instruction and open swim. At 10:00, those families walked back up to City Hall to join everyone else: Soundwave took the stage, registration opened, and a Back-to-School Resource Fair ran until 1:00 PM with 30 organizations tabling across 58 tables. At 12:30, families walked out the doors alongside Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, Bellevue Mayor Malakoutian, DCYF Secretary Tana Senn, Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans, and other civic leaders, and made their way to Lumen Field. Twenty children took the pitch as part of the Regence Dream Team, walking out hand-in-hand with the starting elevens. The Sounders drew Chicago Fire 2–2.

Three out of four families had never set foot in Lumen Field before that day.

That's the number that explains why this event exists. These families spend most of the year moving through systems — intake, placement, paperwork, waitlists. For one Saturday they were guests of the city, walking downtown with the mayor, in the stands for a match, days before school started. Not clients. Not cases. Families out on a Saturday.

By the Numbers

• People Served: 1,000+

• Years of Community Impact: 14

• Families Registered: 267

• Cities Represented: 40

• Tabling Organizations: 30

• Tables at Seattle City Hall: 58

• Sounders Match Tickets Distributed: 1,440

• Youth & Adult Volunteers: 58

Who we served

• 92% of families identified as BIPOC — 93% of individuals

• 100% identified as fostering, kinship, low-income, or underserved

• 35% were fostering or kinship families

• 932 children and teens under 18

• 73% hold an EBT card; 65% qualify for SNAP

What families told us

• 76% had never attended a match or event at Lumen Field

• 59% had at least one family member who does not know how to swim

• Top requests: vision exams (226 families), blood pressure checks (214), dental cleanings (212), sports physicals (199), swim lessons (162), mental health screenings (159)

The Day

7:00–10:00 AM — Cinematique Youth Swim Seventeen families, 51 swimmers, at the Downtown Seattle YMCA. It's on the schedule for a concrete reason: 59% of registering families said someone at home can't swim, and 162 families asked for lessons outright. In a region built around water, that's a safety gap. At 10:00 the group walked from the Y up to City Hall to join the main event.

7:00–9:30 AM — Load-in Volunteers and tablers arrived at dawn to build the fair, stage giveaways, and stand up registration — much of it set the evening before, on the 28th. Match tickets were transferred to volunteers and tablers at check-in.

10:00 AM — Doors open Family registration opened as the resource fair began.

10:15–10:45 AM — Soundwave Live music to open the room.

10:00 AM–1:00 PM — Back-to-School Resource Fair Thirty organizations tabled at Seattle City Hall, spanning education and college access, health care, immigration law, housing and basic needs, transit, and youth programs. With DEEL on site, families could sort out Seattle Public Schools enrollment and early learning placement in person rather than through a phone tree. Fostering Cuts 4 Confidence set up six barber chairs and cut hair for kids all morning. Backpacks, shoes, and food went out alongside the tables.

11:30 AM — Kids of the Match walk to Lumen Twenty youth, ages 5 to 12, left early to reach NE Gate 1 by noon — half an hour ahead of general admission.

12:30 PM — The Community Walk Families departed City Hall for Lumen Field on foot with Mayor Katie Wilson, Bellevue Mayor Malakoutian, DCYF Secretary Tana Senn, CARE Team Chief Amy Barden, Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans, Pacific Science Center CEO Kevin Malgesini, and other civic and community leaders.

1:30 PM — Cinematique Day at the Sounders Kickoff at Lumen Field, Sounders vs. Chicago Fire, finishing 2–2, with 1,440 tickets in the hands of Cinematique families, volunteers, and partners. For most of them, a first.

Thank You

Presenting Sponsor Casey Family Programs

Major Sponsors Sound Transit · Seattle Parks & Recreation · YMCA of Greater Seattle

Supporting Sponsors United Way · Pedigrew Consulting

Collaborating Partners YMCA of Greater Seattle · City of Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning · Seattle Sounders FC · Treehouse · Community Passageways · Rainier Athletes · Byrd Barr Place · Girl Scouts of Western Washington

Tabling Organizations Casey Family Programs · City University of Seattle · College Success Foundation · Eileen and Callie's Place · Fostering Cuts 4 Confidence Foundation · Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center · Girl Scouts of Western Washington · Junior Achievement of Washington · King County Metro · King County Public Health · Learning Center at Hamlin Robinson School · NCNW Seattle · Neighborcare Health · No More Under · Northwest Immigrant Rights Project · Pacific Science Center · Renton Technical College · Seattle Parks & Recreation · Sound Transit · St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle-King County · The HBCU Experience · The Museum of Flight · The Museum of Pop Culture · The ZOLA Experience · Treehouse · University Congregational United Church of Christ · Washington Student Achievement Council · YMCA of Greater Seattle

With thanks to Mayor Katie Wilson and the City of Seattle · Bellevue Mayor Malakoutian · DCYF Secretary Tana Senn · Soundwave · Costco · Shoes That Fit · Seattle Opera

Volunteers Fifty-eight youth and adult volunteers, nineteen of them under 18, worked shifts from 6:45 AM through breakdown. Jack and Jill of America's Seattle chapter and Cheer Seattle came as groups.

Links to Photo Content

• 2026 Cinematique Swim YMCA

• 2026 Cinematique Soccer

• 2026 Cinematique Swim YMCA

• 2026 Cinematique PacSci

• Event Photos

• Photo booth gallery

• Snappic gallery

What's Next

Stay tuned for Cinematique 2027 Details

Fourteen years in, the need hasn't shrunk. Neither has this community.

Essex Community Outreach Corporation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.