After two years of pivoting to a virtual event while trying to meet our fundraising goals in order to support community need, and then finally a year going back to in-person, our organizations realized we had one goal, but two events. Our goal is to be able to help better the lives of the youth in the community through our individual strengths, while maximizing our resources to increase the breadth of our outreach. That is when we determined we would combine our events, AND our strengths, to maximize the potential of both organizations' efforts. The Everett YMCA and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Snohomish County is excited to be able to combine forces for this year’s event, gathering our community together, celebrating, and creating awareness.

This year, our organizations are proud to celebrate 37 years of the Everett YMCA’s Bright Futures Benefit Auction, and 33 years of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Snohomish County’s Dream Builder Auction. Last year, these events provided over $250,000 back to our community to ensure accessibility to the Y and BBBS.  Every day, our organizations work to strengthen the foundations of our community by ensuring that all youth have the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive, regardless of age, income or background. As our community continues to recover from the aftermath of the pandemic, it is even more important that we continue our promise to care for the mental, social, and physical health and well-being of the youth in our community. With the generous support from donors like you in 2022, our community was able to:

• Increase Academic Achievement, Youth Leadership, and Mentoring through programs such as My Achievers Program (MAP), Leaders Club, Youth & Government, and Lifeguard Academy are designed to eliminate the achievement gap through academic support, college readiness, and service learning.
• Ensure youth have access to YMCA facilities and mentoring relationships at no cost after school lets out
• Increase the number of children served in mentoring matches – which result in proven improvement of social and emotional health, increased educational outcomes, and avoidance of risky behaviors in youth and teens
• Expand Big Brothers Big Sisters site-based programming for our Littles through Kids’ Book Club (a group mentoring program focusing on reading and literacy skills), MentorU (a mostly online program for high school students), and School-based 1:1 (where elementary and middle school students meet with their mentors at school)

We invite you to help fulfill the needs of our community by attending this FUN event, spreading the word to your friends and family, and helping us procure some awesome auction items! Visit our Facebook Event page here.