Video: Building For Tomorrow - Stone Soup 2026 Keynote Address

Hello friend!

Time moves fast, and it’s already been two full weeks since Stone Soup 2026. We are so excited to announce that this year’s fundraiser raised over $470,000 for affordable housing, job training, and support services in Snohomish County! We are humbled and eternally thankful to each and every one of you that donated, attended the event, or even just shared word of our mission to your friends. We could not do this without support from people like you.

Over the past fortnight, we’ve seen an incredible amount of love and support for the message presented during our keynote address this year by the incredible Francisco Gonzales Robles (Homeless Foster Care and Migrant Coordinator for the Edmonds School District) along with Letisha Williams (Counselor at Cedar Valley Elementary & South County Regional Board Member), and student actors from Edmonds Woodway Highschool Aiden FitzGerald, Elijah Bergman, Madalyn Bryant, Meadow Wasserman, and Roan Clarke. This year’s powerful address helped bring to life real examples from students and families in the Edmonds School District and the challenges they face on a daily basis, while highlighting the importance that housing and stability has on a student and their educational journey.

As you may know, Scriber Place, our current housing community in development, is a partnership between the Housing Hope and the Edmonds School District to transform surplus school property into a dedicated affordable housing community that serves McKinney-Vento families right in the district. This new model is one we are extremely excited about and that should allow us to serve a emerging population with even more direct support. We hope that this first of it’s kind model for Washington will be a key part of our future and will inspire other school districts to explore similar options to support families and children in their community.

If you weren’t able to make it to this years event, or you just want to experience the keynote address again, we encourage you to click on the video above and watch the full live recording from Stone Soup 2026. We also encourage you to share the video with your colleagues and friends. If you feel called and want to support this project even further please consider making a donation to Housing Hope online here. Together, we can keep hope alive for the over 800 students experiencing homelessness in just the Edmonds School District, and thousands more across Snohomish County.

From all of us at Housing Hope, thank you for your continued support of our agency and the mission we all share.

Kathryn Opina

CEO of Housing Hope