The annual fundraising dinner is the one night a year when KASA asks directly and everyone in the room knows it. We try to make it worth the ask: good food, a program that is actually interesting rather than just obligatory speeches, and enough time for people to talk to each other. The fundraising part is embedded in an evening that is genuinely enjoyable, and we think that is the right approach.

This year’s dinner featured stories from three families whose lives have been touched by KASA’s programs — not polished testimonials prepared by a communications team, but actual people saying, in their own words, what the language program or the food aid or the community connection meant to them. These are not easy stories to tell in public. We are grateful to those who told them.

To everyone who attended, donated, and helped organize the dinner: thank you. The total raised this year will go directly into KASA’s programs for the year ahead. Every dollar reaches a family. That is not a fundraising slogan — it is a description of how this organization actually operates.