Friends and colleagues
Members of the AIA Seattle family
Let's recognize each talent
Let's promote justice and compassion
Let's make the road by walking together Toward a vision of inclusiveness

Friends and colleagues
Members of the AIA Seattle family
Let's give back what we have received
Let's take a stand on what we believe
Let's make the road by walking together
Toward a vision of inclusiveness

Friends and colleagues
Members of the AIA Seattle family
Let's make the road by walking together
Together we can make a difference

Magnificently garbed for the occasion, Solstice Diva Dr. Sharon E. Sutton FAIA invoked powerful concepts of assembly and action in her remarks to those gathered for the 4th annual Solstice Procession, a program of the AIA Seattle Diversity Roundtable, on a pleasantly cool Friday evening June 22.

The Roundtable draws together for this annual occasion to celebrate professional diversity, and to raise funds for programs of student support at the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning. This year's event attracted some very special guests, as AIA national President John D. Anderson FAIA and his wife Flodie, visiting Seattle from their Denver home, and VP-elect Edward Kodet FAIA, from Minneapolis, stepped along the way with their Seattle colleagues. The AIA Seattle Diversity Roundtable and Procession organizers David H. Fukui AIA, S. Keli Hagen Assoc. AIA, and Donald I. King FAIA, along with AIA Seattle President Norman Strong AIA, 1st VP-elect Rena Klein AIA, Director Wolf Saar AIA, Secretary-elect Doug Brinley AIA, joined Dr. Sutton in welcoming and thanking all participants.

The festive throng followed this route on Seattle's Capitol Hill:
� The Hop Vine Pub, where host Dennis Ryan of the UW Department of Urban Design and Planning extended the Pub's hospitality. Procession guests gathered in a circle to introduce themselves, and to make offerings in the form of cash and checks flung into a handily-upturned Solstice umbrella.
� Environmental Works 31st Anniversary Open House, decorated with colorful balloons. Hosts Jan Gleason AIA and Roger Tucker AIA introduced the unique social service mission of Environmental Works, originally established as a community design center. Here Dr. Sutton delivered the invocation, quoted in part above, and EW Executive Director Jan Gleason remembered the personal and professional contributions of the late Denice Hunt AIA, who served as an EW Board member as well as President of AIA Seattle in 1995-96. The Denice Hunt K-12 Internship honors the memory of the first woman of African American heritage elected to preside in an AIA component.
� Arai/Jackson Architects and Planners, a design workplace occupying a structure originally used as a church, where Rich Murakami AIA welcomed the processional. Inside, Kjell Anderson and Katarina Roepke invoked the spirits with fiddle tunes ranging from reels to Scandinavian airs to the classics, while celebrants feasted on treats from several ethnic cuisines.

Perhaps most significantly, people celebrated the occasion of the Solstice, and spoke from their hearts with people who listened. Many spoke of their own efforts to incorporate the value of diversity into their design practices, testifying about successes and expressing concern about limits encountered within and beyond the profession.

Maurice Diaz, this year's recipient of a scholarship to pursue his architecture studies at the UW CAUP granted from the AIA Seattle Fund for Architectural Diversity, sent his greetings and thanks from abroad. Currently taking part in a study tour of Scandinavian communities, A native of The Philippines, Maurice Diaz recently completed his third year of undergraduate studies.

Dr. Sutton, Director of the CAUP's Center for Environment, Education, and Design Studies (CEEDS), offered thanks again for the Diversity Roundtable's successful efforts to endow the Denice Hunt K-12 Internship, and reported plans now in place to support "Denice Hunt Interns" beginning this Fall at CAUP.

Procession hosts and sponsors brought their special gifts too: thanks to LMN Architects (Rob Widmeyer AIA), Mortenson, Mulvanny G2 Architecture (Jerry Lee, Keli Hagen) NBBJ (Jim Suehiro AIA), Turner Construction (Larry Hutchinson), and ZGF (Don Miles FAIA); DKA (Donald I. King FAIA), Jones + Jones, and Streeter and Associates (Indra Jain AIA); and Fukui Architecture (David Fukui AIA). Evening hosts made everyone feel welcome and well refreshed with good things to eat and drink.

The throng, numbering about 75 over the procession route, included individuals from all around the world and from all generations. The Solstice umbrellas along the way not only brought color to the procession but attracted donations to enrich the coffers for student support at the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning -- to the tune of nearly $700, in addition to sponsorship monies received in advance. "If it had rained, umbrella sales would have put us over the top toward our goal of $5,000 in revenue from this event," noted Donald King. "Because of the pleasant weather, we relied on pledges received to finish the job. We thank all who participated in a memorable event, kicking off the Roundtable's next endowment campaign."

In September, Diversity Roundtable Chair Keli Hagen and others will meet with CAUP officers to outline plans to endow the AIA Seattle Diversity Roundtable Fund for Student Support.