West Seattle Mutual Aid Party, a partner of NW Hospitality, usually reserves their regular updates for their volunteers and supporters. However, they gave us permission to share this recent update.

Trust me, it’s worth a read.

Interested in getting regular updates about WSMAP and the vulnerable community in West Seattle that they serve? Consider becoming a WSMAP supporter!

Hi from West Seattle Mutual Aid Party!

At distro on Saturday, there were two birthdays to celebrate and one of our crew made these gorgeous handmade cards and another made delicious frosted cupcakes.

One of the birthday people we've been helping with pet appointments and their eyes LIT UP with excitement when they heard about the cupcakes. Sometimes it's a little things that really make a difference.

A resident gave us a bag with tons of plastic bags, which we sometimes struggle to keep stocked and they were very pleased to have something to offer us. We rarely turn down folks' offers of help or assistance because that is what community is all about, being able to lend a hand or sharing what you can spare with others.

It's been a while since we've shown pictures of the amount of propane and food and water that we load and distribute. This amount was just for one distro and served 28 folks.

We've started having a couple folks who use the small green camping propane tanks, which luckily, one of our crew has the ability to refill from a large propane tank. Our propane situation has gotten a bit unwieldy so the portfolio on top of one of the propane tanks is our solution, a low-tech, written down account of who gave us what and what they want us to do if we can't find them after a couple attempts. So far so good!

We have Zoom check-in meetings every other week and they're great ways for us to catch up a little more with each other and to brainstorm ways to fine tune our process. This new addition to our propane program is a direct result of one of those check-in meetings.

And now we've come to the second part of this report back, which is that some of our friends, who we've known for about a year now, since the early distros at Youngstown, were recently forcibly displaced by the city from other, less residential areas within the last week and forced to move back into more residential areas. Sunday night, a "Neighborhood Watch" slipped several of them threatening letters in their doors. Our friends sent the letter to us, asking us to help them brainstorm what to do, because it's not right that people can just do stuff like this.

We've shared it on our Twitter, tagged folks from West Seattle Blog, Real Change, The Stranger, and others, and have also emailed it to a few different groups. West Seattle Blog wrote an article about it already. We're hoping more outlets will cover this because this letter is not the first bit of harassment and disgusting behavior that our friends have experienced at this location. When they've parked there previously, they've received two other letters, had people throw bags of dog poop at their homes, and recorded a video of someone getting out of their Mercedes car, peeing on their home and then tossing garbage nearby.

As mentioned above, community defense includes defending our friends and neighbors.

As a tiny palate cleanser and to end on not such a grim note, we're happy that I-135 passed! Our Twitter thread shares a little memory about the early days of I-135, during the gathering signatures portion of it.

Thanks as always for your support,

West Seattle Mutual Aid Party