(Image: Access Walk)

With health and reproductive rights increasingly being determined at the state level, Access Walk is taking steps to support choice by strengthening Seattle’s ability to help people from across the nation. Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park will host the 2024 Access Walk this Saturday with funds and donations raised at the event going towards services people need most when seeking care far from their homes, like lodging, food and, gasoline.

Access Walk co-founder Jeff Pyatt tell CHS the fall of Roe v. Wade inspired a family discussion at the dinner table. After pondering what they could do to assist birthing people, they came up with an idea for the walk. The first was held in Volunteer Park in 2023.

“This is a basic healthcare right—abortion is. Having it be banned or hard to receive in so many states, and having abortion services in Washington that are available, but for access, hard to get here, I feel like we have a moral imperative to make sure that anyone who needs to get here for an abortion can, and if we can help them with lodging and fuel and transportation and meals, then we’re doing good work,” Pyatt said.

Executive director Meg Zapalowski was introduced to Pyatt through connections at the Cascade Bicycle Club and she dove into the opportunity.

This year’s walk is expected to include about 200 participants, some of which have joined teams, although the event is open to the public to check out the action, including vendors, food trucks and DJ Flex. People can register to walk the day of the event for $40, and all funds raised from walkers and donors will go to Cedar River Clinics of Washington and Lilith Clinic.

“We wrote a check last year to Cedar River Clinics for $100,000, which was wonderful,” Pyatt said.

Finding sponsors for the event has been a challenge, Pyatt said, because many businesses fear backlash.

“Our family is paying for all of the costs that we don’t cover with sponsorship. In year one, it was 100 percent us last year, which is an unsustainable number for our family, and so this year we began, early, trying to get sponsorships,” Pyatt said.

Zapalowski said Future Primitive Brewing has been an important sponsor from Access Walk’s beginning, and that it will be setting up a beer garden area in the park. The Seattle Storm will also be supporting the event by dishing out 2025 game tickets to walkers who re-register.

“It’s really about identifying clinics and organizations out there that are going to help us reach the masses, that are going to help us reach the women out there that need these services but aren’t receiving them because the barrier to access, and our goal is to breakdown that barrier,” Zapalowski said.

Zapalowski and Pyatt said the Access Walk will be a day filled with celebrations surrounding a woman’s right to choose. Pyatt said they chose Volunteer Park as the event location because it’s someplace central, even though several Access Walk staffers live as far as Leavenworth.

“We wanted someplace friendly, approachable. Seattle seemed like the logical place to do it. Volunteer Park has a nice loop around it. It’s about a 1 kilometer loop so people can walk laps there. It’s a safe place,” Pyatt said.

Access Walk 2024 takes place Saturday, September 14th in Volunteer Park starting at 2 PM. You can register or find out how to support the walk at accesswalk.org.

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