Walkstars 2025: A Night of Celebration, Community, and Purpose (aka the Best Party in Town)
On May 17th, we hosted our annual fundraiser event, Walkstars, and it was wonderful! Held at OMSI’s Theory Restaurant, the evening brought together our incredible Oregon Walks family: supporters, activists, community leaders, and long time friends. In many ways, each Walkstars feels like a family reunion, and this year was the same!
Guided by the wit (and cider expertise!) of our emcee, Nat West, the evening featured powerful storytelling and a heart-touching keynote speech from Nathan Vass. Nathan gave us a window into what being a transit operator on one of Seattle’s most notorious lines is like, and how building community and relationships is an antidote to many of the challenges we face in our transportation system.
This year we celebrated two Walkstar Awards.
🌟 Jonathan Maus is the creator, writer, reporter, videographer, photographer, and editor (he does it all!) at BikePortland. His dedication to covering news, events, and policy goes far beyond just bikes, and includes all road users, including pedestrians. His dedication to this work has been a beacon of hope for local journalism and has been a gift to the active transportation community. Congratulations Jonathan!
🌟 Word is Bond uses walking as a way to build community, friendship, skills, and understanding. They bring people together to slow down, be present, and connect. In this act of connecting, Word is Bond gives voice to young black men and their lived experienced while developing skills in speaking, leadership, and organizing. We celebrated this incredible work as well as all their other programming that lifts up young Black men in our community. Congratulations Lakayana and the Word Is Bond team!
We’re deeply grateful for everyone who made Walkstars 2025 possible: our sponsors, volunteers, board members, and every single person who attended. You are helping build a safer, more equitable Oregon, one step at a time.
Browse photos from the evening below and follow this link to see the rest. A HUGE thank you to Alan de Anda for photographing the event!
Finally, a thank you to our sponsors!
Gold: Thomas, Coon, Newton, & Frost; Trimet; Multnomah County REACH
Silver: PBOT, Prosper Portland, Metro, CareOregon, Forum Law Group
Bronze: kpff, Beneficial State Bank, NW Natural, Kline Personal Law, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability