Juneteenth Fundraiser for Community Passageways

In honor of Juneteenth, Pagliacci Pizza is kicking off another fundraiser for Community Passageways with a $50,000 contribution. An additional $25,000 in matching funds has been provided by Macrina Bakery, DeLaurenti, and Caffe Umbria. Our goal is to raise $150,000 for Community Passageways. All gifts up to $75,000 will be matched. No donation is too small, and every dollar will support at-risk youth of color in our community. Click here for our GoFundMe page, and please join us in support of Community Passageways. 

Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, commemorates the day when the last enslaved people in the Confederacy were set free. Though Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law in 1863, it wasn’t until June 19, 1865—more than two and a half years later—that a quarter million enslaved people in Texas were set free when Union soldiers brought the news to Galveston, Texas.

President Biden just signed into law a bill creating a federal holiday to commemorate Juneteenth. Beginning next year, Juneteenth will be a legal state paid holiday in Washington state.

African Americans have celebrated the holiday since the late 19th century. It is a day for festivities but also of remembrance. The reverberations of slavery and the racism that sustained it continue to impact our country. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “No one is free until we are all free.” 

Community Passageways, a Seattle-based organization we have supported since 2018, is committed to breaking the school-to-prison cycle with a school-to-life pathway. Dominique Davis, the founder and CEO of Community Passageways, leads a team that provides guidance and support to youth and works to provide an alternative to the current criminal justice system with a community-centered model, including recruiting gang members to jobs instead of jail.

Last year, in response to George Floyd’s death, we launched a fundraiser for Community Passageways. The fundraiser shattered our expectations. An outpouring of support from employees, vendors, peers and friends helped us raise nearly $153,000. Dom was able to hire two new ambassadors to help coach court-involved young people of color and support them on their journey to fulfilling lives and careers.

“Community Passageways is an organization that does not stand on the sidelines when work needs to be done to help our communities, so when we get to partner with companies like Pagliacci we see the hard work and support they give communities and see that they are in the field with us,” Dom said. “Pagliacci has not only supported us and the work that we do, but they have also brought in other organizations they are connected to with the same passions and desires to heal our communities and make them healthy and whole. Thank you Pagliacci for being in the game with us. We need you, we appreciate you, and we honor this relationship.”

Since 2018, Pagliacci has created jobs for Community Passageways youth and acted as mentors. We are deeply committed to race and social justice, and we know how vital ongoing support is to an organization like Community Passageways. In the spirit of Juneteenth, please help us help Dom break the school-to-prison pipeline, an essential step in healing one of the many wounds of slavery. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Matt Galvin, Co-owner of Pagliacci Pizza