Guests assemble in the Seattle Aquarium’s Puget Sound Hall for Tuxes & Trains 2023.
Our 2023 gala fundraiser, Tuxes & Trains: Waves of Change, was a stunning success thanks to our incredible community of supporters. Read on for a few highlights and photos, as well as some exciting news announced publicly at the event.
More than 300 people joined us at the gorgeous Seattle Aquarium for an evening of celebration and community. We’ve heard people call Tuxes & Trains “the party of the year” and this year’s gala did not disappoint! The evening featured a live DJ, a jellyfish photo booth, touch tanks, our Hall of Fame awards, comments by Senator Rebecca Saldaña, and a spirited “Raise the Paddle” fundraiser. Special thanks to Ellany Kayce for opening up our program with a beautiful land acknowledgement. What a treat to have so many transportation leaders from across the state come together to toast to waves of change in Washington transportation!
A guest interacts with a sea urchin.
DJ Toya brings the jams.
Senator Saldaña shares some remarks.
Guests pose in the jellyfish photo booth.
In total, we raised $274,651, blowing past our goal of $240,000 — AMAZING! We are enormously grateful for the generous support of our Transportation Choices community. Thank you to our sponsors and to each and every one of you who attended the event, donated, bought raffle tickets, or participated in our online auction. (Hot tip: The auction is over, but you can still order our limited-edition “Transit Cheer” ugly holiday sweater to support our work!) We were particularly thrilled to see the enthusiastic participation in the “Raise the Paddle” portion of the program. Thank you to everyone who stepped up with a gift and to our fabulous emcee, Sasha Summer Cousineau, for helping to make this important fundraiser a success! If you didn’t get a chance to give, you can still make a donation today and fuel our work to bring safe, sustainable, and equitable transportation choices to all Washingtonians.
Emcee Sasha Summer Cousineau reads off bidder numbers from the crowd.
As part of Tuxes & Trains, we were honored to recognize the 2023 Transportation Choices Hall of Fame inductees — People for People, Downtown On the Go, Senator Rebecca Saldaña, and the Sound Transit Fare Ambassadors. What an incredible group of transportation advocates, and we were thrilled that so many Fare Ambassadors could join us at the event. Read more about these transportation champions and how they’re helping to make our transportation system better for all.
Transportation Choices Hall of Fame recipients accept their awards.
Sound Transit Fare Ambassadors and staff pose for a celebratory picture.
We also shared the exciting news that Kirk Hovenkotter will be TCC’s next Executive Director! Many in our community already know Kirk and have worked with him in his current position as the ED at Commute Seattle, or his previous leadership roles at Move Redmond and TransitCenter. Kirk has championed TCC’s mission throughout his career and there is nobody better suited to take the organization into its next chapter. Kirk will be coming on board in January and we can’t wait to welcome him to the TCC team. Stay tuned for more details and an invitation to meet Kirk in early 2024.
Kirk Hovenkotter is introduced as TCC’s next Executive Director!
Huge thanks to everyone — including the Transportation Choices staff and board, Synchronicity events team, Seattle Aquarium staff, our gala committee, amazing volunteers, and so many others — who helped make Tuxes & Trains: Waves of Change such a resounding success.
We can’t wait to celebrate with you next year at Tuxes & Trains 2024!
Check out more fabulous pics from photographer Danny Ngan here, and feel free to share them with credit.
The TCC staff pose at the end of a successful gala. All photos by Danny Ngan.
