Social Justice in our Community
AFTER THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD IN 2020, A1DESIGNBUILD FORMED A SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE MADE UP OF BOTH EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERS. WE JUMPED AT THE CHANCE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SOCIAL, RACIAL, AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES, AND TO FIND OUT HOW WE COULD HELP. THE COMMITTEE CONTINUES ITS WORK INWARD AND OUTWARD TO EXPLORE AND ADDRESS PREJUDICES OF ALL KINDS. A MAIN GOAL IS NOT ONLY TO SUPPORT OTHERS IN NEED WITH MONEY, BUT TO ACT – ESPECIALLY IN PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION. FOLLOWING ARE TWO STORIES FEATURING THE COMMITTEE’S INAUGURAL WORK.
2021: Cold Weather Kits
A1DesignBuild pays employees an hourly wage for committee participation. But the members of the Social Justice Committee voted to set that money aside in a committee bank account, rather than get paid for our time. So far, we have accumulated over $2,700.00 in the nearly two years that we have been meeting. In November 2021 we brought a request to the A1 Board of Directors to match our Social Justice funds for an upcoming plan. The positive response was unanimous, and our request was granted. We doubled our fund!
In the fall we had begun brainstorming the idea of a sock drive. We talked about the upcoming cold weather in Whatcom County and how it would affect the houseless members of our community. This idea quickly progressed from “wool sock drive” to “cold weather kit”. We borrowed ideas from posts we saw on social media and from friends and neighbors to grow our discussion on how we could offer support.
One Social Justice Committee member reached out to The Opportunity Council, to get a better idea of items that were in high demand so we could provide real necessities, rather than what we thought would help. The Opportunity Council connected us with their homeless outreach team who gave us an incredible list of items and potential priority levels for each piece so we could build from there. We kept much of our shopping local and even received some discounts in support.
In December 2021, we provided the homeless outreach team with the following essentials:
Wool socks
Contractor Trash Bags
Body Wipes
Can Openers
Hand Warmers
Cell Phone Charging Blocks & Cables
Emergency Blankets
Hand Sanitizer
Menstrual Supplies
Condoms
Duct Tape
Reusable utensil sets
Chapstick
Rain Ponchos
In addition, we donated $1,000 each to the Lighthouse Mission and the Bellingham Food Bank, and purchased over $1000 in toys and craft supplies for the Lydia Place Heart House.
We are honored to contribute to our community, and we look forward to continuing to do so for many years, in many ways.
2020-21:
One winter of Saturdays for endless summers of berries
In October 2020, A1DesignBuild’s Social Justice Committee found an opportunity with Rosalinda Guillen, farmworker, rural justice leader and founder of Community to Community (C2C). C2C works with Tierra Y Libertad who runs the U-Pick 65-acre cooperative farm in Everson. Rosalinda introduced us to Ramon Torres, president of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, the new, independent union for farmworkers in Washington state and the manager of the farm in Everson. The worker-owned farm produces blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries using all organic and sustainable farming practices in an equitable and just workplace with fair wages, free of exploitation.
The project: resurrect for good, a kit greenhouse that had blown down several times. Justus Peterson and I steered the project, and in December Ramon and his coworkers gave us tour. It was a sad sight. One end of the 96-foot long tube assembly was blown over and the whole structure was leaning. We quickly realized the entire thing would need to be taken down and rebuilt.
Before that though, we needed to understand why the building was failing. We worked with Rainy Selove and Sean Hoppes of the Institute for Washington’s Future (IWF), the farm’s fiscal sponsor for this project, to hunt down the manufacturer, parts list, and instructions. The main contributing factor was the footing placements – the instructions require the posts to be buried in two feet of concrete and they were only placed just below grade.
Just as we at A1 DesignBuild are not farmers, Ramon and his crews are not builders, so, we took this opportunity to mentor the farmers in how to rebuild it so it might not fall again. The farmworkers were present every workday and participated whenever they could, working side by side with us as needed.
Justus and I set out to inventory replacement parts. By late December we’d placed an order while Ramon and his crew had dismantled the greenhouse components and sorted the parts.
We worked Saturdays as the weather allowed, with A1 staff and others helping. A special shout to our Thad, Chris, Eric, Dave and Adriana who were present with Justus and me most Saturdays. In an amazing twist, former A1 clients Martha and Ryan Smith live right next door to the farm and had installed a nearly identical greenhouse, so they pitched in several weekends as well.
The tasks were a bit daunting: hand dig 42 holes for footings two feet deep? We brought in our go-to earthworks contractor Jeff and Dacoda at Dirt Devil Construction. In half a day, all 42 holes were auger drilled and ready! That saved us several days of labor. Then the A1 team set out to do what they do best – precisely align, square and level all the sleeves ready for concrete placement.
Our first option for concrete was again a tough one: hand mixing would have required several hundred bags of concrete and lots of labor. We reached out to John Van Werven at Cadman, Inc. in Lynden about providing a short truckload, and they were only too happy to deliver the material at a discounted rate – thank you John!
After the concrete cured, we ran straight at assembling the tube structure. Through the winter and until early April we studied instructions, ran to hardware stores, bent and hammered things back into place.
Along the way we ate together, sometimes just takeout from the local taco truck, other times it was a catered event with carne asada and all the fixings cooked by our new farmer friends. We even got our coworker Rochelle and her daughter to drive her RV up to use as a mobile kitchen.
By early April, the frame was fully up. Ramon and the farmers told us, “This thing is so strong it will never fall down – thank you.” They felt comfortable completing the plastic cover and mechanicals themselves.
This is what can be achieved when community comes together. We gave a winter of Saturdays and received friendship and cultural enrichment in return – our small corner of the world is tighter than ever. Thank you to everyone who pitched in: Rosalinda, Sean, Ramon and all the workers, for being such graceful hosts and giving us this opportunity.