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Thursday, February 9, 2012

City John T. Williams Memorial Totem $60,000 Short of Fundraising Goal

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 1:28 PM

Kelly O

For the past year, family and friends of John T. Williams have been fundraising to install a 40-foot totem pole in honor of the late Ditidaht woodcarver, who was fatally shot in 2010 by Seattle Police officer Ian Birk. The pole was slated to be erected on February 26—the day before Williams's birthday—at the Seattle Center.

"We're envisioning a two-day celebration, involving a parade of people hand-carrying the pole from the waterfront and raising it on Sunday, and then a smaller, more intimate celebration of John's life on his birthday," says Connie Sue Martin, a lawyer associated with the John T. Williams Totem Pole Project.

But now that plan is in jeopardy of falling apart. Martin says that the memorial fund is roughly $60,000 short of its $160,00 fundraising goal, which includes $15,000 stipulated by the city to ensure the pole's future maintenance. "If we need that cash on hand, if that's a sticking point with the city, the project's a no-go," she explains. "With all the events planned for the Seattle Center for its 50th anniversary year, we have a very small window of opportunity for raising the pole this year."

"So we're in a big fundraising push right now," she adds.

In light of their lack of funds, private firms have stepped up and offered their pro-bono services to get the pole installed on schedule. "We have an architectural firm working on site design and permitting, and a construction company willing to dig a telephone-pole-sized hole for the totem's base," Martin says. "We're hoping the city will work with us on this."

Martin is scheduled to meet with city and Seattle Center officials at 3:00 pm today to ask for a concession from the city that would allow them to continue fundraising for the endowment once the pole is raised.

Comments (8) RSS

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Maybe they'd get more donations if their donation button on their page worked. Tried in Chrome, Firefox and IE -- no dice.

Posted by Fnarf

on February 9, 2012 at 1:44 PM

@1: You may want to reboot your PC. Worked fine for me in both Chrome and IE.

Posted by bigyaz on February 9, 2012 at 1:48 PM

@2, nope, still nada. The "donate a tile" link works, but that's for $250. I don't have that. I'm clicking the smaller Paypal Donate link below, which, if I'm reading the html correctly, appears to be an img only, not a link.

Posted by Fnarf

on February 9, 2012 at 2:40 PM

@3, that's my experience too. Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE on Parallels. Hmph. Ya mean I have to go find where I left my checkbook back in 2009?

Posted by gloomy gus on February 9, 2012 at 3:00 PM

@3: Ah, THAT button. Yes, that's a dead end.

Posted by bigyaz on February 9, 2012 at 3:56 PM

What I ended up doing was using the other link, filling in any old garbage, until I got to the real donation page, where I was able to change the amount. Be sure and put "JTW Project" in the box, though.

Posted by Fnarf

on February 9, 2012 at 4:06 PM

60 k for a pole ? fuck you .this is why everything is so expensive and taxes are so high . every one just thinks shit should cost a million dollars . get a sense of reality , especially for a drunken indian hobo ? gimme a break . spend it on old people who need help , or a starving kid , or rent a room for some one homeless . anything but this bullshit .

Posted by whatsbeckgottadowithit on February 9, 2012 at 7:24 PM

@7

I agree.

People can do whatever they want with their cash but I would rather see donations to the red cross or Doctors without borders or any other number of organizations that help the world instead of "drunken Indian hobo" who got shot on a day when he didn't happen to deserve it. At least we save money on not arresting him weekly.

Posted by Cascadian Bacon on February 10, 2012 at 7:03 PM