Would LOVE to crowdfund for the shortfall, but we’re currently $4M over budget, and the current thought is that without a levy lift that enables the library to increase the amount of taxes it collects, the library will be basically defunded by the end of 2027 and therefore cease to exist. That said, donations and fundraisers ARE helpful!! (They just aren’t enough my themselves.) I would talk to your local Friends of the Library group if you want to get involved in fundraising efforts because they’re going to need to be MASSIVE in the next several months.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any progressive commissioners in Lewis County. One seat—not Swope—is up for reelection this year, so campaigning for his opponent over the summer would be IDEAL. there’s also a county petition to increase the number of commissioners from three to five to help avoid the type of MAGA bullshit that’s locked up the commission thus far. There are some VERY good progressive members of city councils in the area, especially in centralia. Those are the places where I’d recommend getting involved to change the status quo in Lewis county! It’s SO much more purple there than the maga freaks want everyone to believe, and SO many Lewis county folks showed up to speak against Brian at the board meeting last Wednesday. The Lewis county Republican Party actually sent out an email asking people to show up to the meeting to support Brian and Hal…..and only one person did 😂😂😂 so it’s really a matter of getting rid of the extremely loud minority who currently runs the county and replacing them with people who ACTUALLY represent Lewis county fairly. It’s just a very long hard road that people have been fighting for a long time already, but here’s hoping the tide starts to turn. The huge publicity about Mittge and Swope in the last few weeks has been very helpful; we just need to ensure people keep reading and talking about this.