Eastsiders band together to support Standing Rock

By Catherine Krummey • November 10, 2016 6:30 am
Eastside 4 Standing Rock will host a fundraiser Saturday. Stella LeMay, daughter of one of the organizers, created this artwork for a T-shirt that will be available to purchase. Contributed art
Eastside 4 Standing Rock will host a fundraiser Saturday. Stella LeMay, daughter of one of the organizers, created this artwork for a T-shirt that will be available to purchase. Contributed art

A couple of weeks ago, Caron LeMay decided she’d had enough of the reports coming from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota about the conflict between those building the Dakota Access Pipeline and environmentalists protesting the oil pipeline. It was time to do something.

“Every new piece of information we see is so infuriating and leaves you feeling so powerless,” LeMay said. “I started thinking, ‘What can I do?’”

She spoke with a few other moms with kids at Community School in Kirkland, and it turns out they wanted to do something as well. “I told Caron, ‘I want to help; I want to be involved,’” Sylvie Wong said.

The group Eastside 4 Standing Rock was formed, and they are hosting a fundraising event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Lake Washington United Methodist Church. “They’re very actively involved in community service, so they allowed us to use their space,” Ailsa Hall, another one of the event organizers, said.

Representatives from the Eastside Native American Education Program will be in attendance Saturday with donations, food and live music, and the event also will include a garage sale, bake sale, raffle and silent auction. LeMay’s daughter, Stella, designed a T-shirt the group will be selling both during and following Saturday’s sale. The organizers agreed it was important to have this event and involve their kids to show them how people can help a cause from a distance.

“I think that’s a really good teaching point, to show how the support builds into something much bigger,” Hall said. “The look on our kids’ faces when they realize they can participate — it’s a gift that goes many ways.”

Eastside 4 Standing Rock will be accepting donations up through the start of the event on Saturday. For more information, email eastside4standingrock@gmail.com or find the event on Facebook.

The organizers said they hope to see this event as a springboard to generate more local support for the cause. “This is something that’s going to continue to generate support,” Sheryl Batt said.

“It’s a way of establishing a community that cares about these issues,” Hall added, saying the event would be a way for people who can’t actually go to Standing Rock to protest to move from a passive role to an active role. “Hopefully we’ll be mobilizing the community.”