November Members Meeting Celebrates Community
By Christine Mrak
Community was the theme of November’s WSI Members Meeting—community with our members, our allies, and our West Seattle neighbors.
Members nourished each other with three tables full of delicious potluck offerings, and nourished the West Seattle and White Center Food Banks with bags of donated food, household necessities and cash. Before, during, and after the meeting, the gaily decorated room buzzed with conversation.
WSI Co-Director Laurie Reinhardt invited members to celebrate the positive results of the recent elections. She acknowledged the get-out-the-vote efforts of WSI’s Tipping Point Team.
Focus then shifted to what’s next. WSI Volunteer Coordinator Amy Daly-Donovan distributed a flyer with “12 Actions You Can Take.”
The Events Team is planning an anniversary rally and march to mark President Trump’s inauguration in January. Events Team lead Debbie Bezanson described the idea as similar to a New Orleans funeral procession with people carrying 365 signs marking each day of the first year of Trump’s administration behind jazz bands. The Team needs many volunteers. Please email volunteer@westseattleindivisible to sign up.
Representatives of ally organizations were invited to describe their work and opportunities to participate.
West Seattle Mutual Aid Party provides food, water, clothes, hygiene products, and propane to unhoused people in West Seattle and White Center. They also provide support during sweeps of homeless camps.
The Westside Neighbors Shelter is the only shelter in West Seattle. It is in the American Legion Hall on SW Alaska St. The Shelter houses and feeds up to 72 people at a time. Director Keith Hughes said four furloughed and fired Federal workers have been showing up for breakfast in addition to unhoused men and women. He urged members to remember local Westside charities.
The Trump Administration has said that Seattle will be a target for ICE in the future. To alert community members that ICE is in a neighborhood, Laurie explained that other cities have effectively used whistles. She and a member explained that when ICE is seen in an area blow three short blasts over and over again. If you see someone being detained by ICE blow the whistle constantly. People hearing whistles should go to the sound to “form a crowd and stay loud.” WSI and the member distributed whistles to everyone who wanted one.
After the program ended, conversations restarted and continued until it was time to clean up. What a great way to celebrate what WSI members have done over the last few months!
