Weekly Updates from Mayor Pete Lewis

Update February 5, 2010
(An update to the people from Mayor Pete Lewis)

Listen to this week's update.

A while back I was asked by a reporter what made Auburn so different from surrounding communities. She was interested in knowing how we could have a Food Bank Breakfast in a city our size and have more than 500 people show up at 7:00 AM and give tens of thousands of dollars.

She wanted to know how the Miss Auburn Scholarship Program could possibly have gotten to be the largest local of Miss America in the entire county and what made Auburn so special that the largest Veterans Day Parade was in our town.

We are different than most. Some people have an address in their city. They use it as a place to eat and sleep. If they have children, their address might extend as far as their school and maybe a school event or two. In some cases that address might go to a local church but just on Sundays. They are alone, isolated and they do not know what is there just for them.

Auburn’s way began with its history and we are quite different. We’re a territorial city meaning we were already a community before there was a state. The community grew up knowing it had to depend on itself, a characteristic unchanged to this day. For much of its existence it’s been a strong community rich in people if not in cash.

We are a two county city in both Pierce and King counties. For many the dividing line is around Highway 18 and you can see that reflected in the newspaper readership with more subscriptions to the Tacoma News Tribune south of 18 and more for the Seattle Times north of it.

We are a city of immigrants with the first people represented by Muckleshoot, a semi-sovereign nation with whom we share the land on the south side of our home. We have so many close ties with all of the populations that arrived here. Scandinavians were some of our first, loggers, trappers and settlers and the Sons of Norway are still strong in our town. You see many German and Greek names here that were early settlers as well as English and Dutch. Our Japanese community has deep roots here and we celebrate Bon Odori with them each summer. The Sons of Italy are here in great numbers and it’s hard to get up from the table after one of their fundraisers. Vietnamese, our comrades in arms and heroes of another long journey are friends and neighbors and now Latinos, Ukrainians and populations from all over the old U.S.S.R as well as people from India and Somalia. We have always been hard working industrious people and we have always mixed and changed and remained the same.

From our earliest days this has been an independent city, always cautious of asking for help from the outside, and we’ve learned to count on each other and became a community with a heart so big and generous it is sometimes difficult to understand.

That question about the Food Bank I was asked? Here are some comments their Director Debbie Christian gave me:

Today as I open the mail – I am blessed to find unique checks coming through --- one from a store that has told their customers: Give a donation to The Auburn Food Bank and we will make you a special deal on this item….” How creative and wonderful!!! A win win!!!!

Then the next letter:

Today I visited The Auburn Food Bank for the second time this month. I just wanted to express my gratitude to all the staff and volunteers. You literally kept me from starving this month.

I was fired from my job just before Christmas. They had suspended me for a week before, and I had a payday loan to have “Christmas” so I didn’t have much of a last check – and no one hiring just before New Year’s….I was beginning to panic and am still in a bit of financial turmoil. I don’t know how often you are thanked for the selfless and generous work you do, but I’m quite sure it is not nearly enough. Please now that you are literally keeping people alive and able to work. I thank you so much for helping me personally in this difficult time.

Debbie continued: I’M COLD --- it’s 12:30 in the morning and I’m in my own home – getting dressed to go out and participate in the National One Night Count of our homeless in our community. If I’m cold now – at 65 degrees - what must my friends, who sleep out in the elements, feel like? On my way to our “headquarters” – I drive by the food bank…..it’s now 1:15 AM – and I see 8 people standing at our door. At 9:00 AM – we open up for our financial assistance….these people are going to stand, sit and sleep at our doorstep for 8 hours…..desperation is setting in…..

Hard as it is – I drive on by……..and meet our teams to get our instructions and head out to our appointed routes. It’s dark but the full moon helps. We have our flashlights but they don’t seem to be much help. We walk about a 3 mile route – quietly – we don’t want to disturb anyone or scare them…..this is their “home” that we are peeking into.

I’m thinking about “what if this was me….where would I find to sleep that was safe, protected from the wind and rain, and what could I find that would provide some warmth.” I’m not sure I find much as I’m walking along. I wonder about those that I do know that live out here….how are they doing…..what have they found…..

Our count here in Auburn is lower than last year. Surprising since we know we are serving more clients who have lost their homes – but we also know some have friends who have taken them in and sharing expenses so their money can be stretched farther….maybe being able to save to have their own place again.

Then of course she had to let me know: Get ready to help our Students! The Auburn School District is hosting their 5^th Annual All School Food Drive Competition, starting February 22^nd and going through March 5^th. This food drive and these students literally “save us”!

During a time of the year when people are trying to budget expenses, and are worried about having to pay taxes, these students bring in enough food and money to help supplement and carry us for about 3 months. The schools have found some incredible ways to compete against each other to inspire the donations! Yes – they want their school to win – but they do understand that the “win” is really for the people we serve here in Auburn. I love attending their assemblies! They inspire me!!!

This Thursday and Friday is the Miss Auburn Scholarship Program – and they donate their “People’s Choice” gifts to The Auburn Food Bank! You can donate to your candidate of choice to help her with the “People’s Choice” award – and that money then gets donated to us! Again – another win-win opportunity! I’ve been asked to be a judge this year! What an awesome experience!

Why are we different? We learn at an early age to help and to care. The school children do a drive each year to help White Canes, a Lions Club Project. They help people with sight and hearing problems and raise tens of thousands of dollars with their efforts.

Auburn Youth Resources helps young people in crisis. Some have horrible homes, others are runaways, others are troubled in ways that take years to comprehend and their needs are great. Every year this community comes together and holds a breakfast for them and five, sometimes six hundred people will come to give and to help.

ACAP helps young children and families in need with daycare especially for children with heart wrenching problems and again the people come out to help. GriefWorks, King County Sexual Assault Task Force and so many others all get that same support from the heart.

From fundraisers to fun with our 4^th of July Parade and Petpalooza, ArtRageous, Kids Day, Good Old Days, the largest Veteran’s Day Parade west of the Mississippi, our special Santa Parade events, we come out together and share and have fun.

To understand Auburn you have to see the thousands that come out at Clean Sweep, held in the spring, where volunteers from all over our city come out to a special project, not for themselves but for the community. Last year we painted over graffiti from all of our 214 miles of streets and just a few years ago in a few short hours more than a thousand of us planted that hedge now growing along A Street in front of the rail yard.

If you want to see the real Auburn go the Auburn Performing Arts Center or PAC as we call it. Built when there were only 20,000 people in town its thousand seat auditorium is the largest of its kind outside of downtown Seattle and it is home to the largest symphony orchestra in the region. See a production at The Ave, live theater in downtown. To understand and be a part of Auburn you have to see our events, mostly done by volunteers. If you want to understand Auburn go to Uniquely Auburn, put on by volunteers that open us up for all to see.

To understand Auburn you have to see the heart and soul of our churches. I recently met with a pastor doing great work here in our town that had to let go of one of his most difficult missions that his church had struggled to continue at great sacrifice to the church and him personally but was in tears, well maybe we both were, having to give it up knowing all the while that his own life would be much easier doing so. He and his church made a difference to us then and they will do so again.

If you want to understand Auburn, attend the Miss Auburn Scholarship Program. It’s a two night presentation; the last night is tonight at 7:00 PM. It’s organized and produced by all volunteers, nobody gets paid. The program gives out more dollars in direct scholarships than many states. Contestants don’t raise money, they earn scholarships. It’s held at the PAC and those thousand seats get filled. The winner of Miss Auburn gets to go to Miss Washington and then like our own Devanni Partridge the current Miss Washington, perhaps to Miss America. But for us, for Auburn, our Miss Auburn is a representative to our community known to adults and children alike as our ambassador.

We are the land of two rivers, homes to two counties, home to two nations. We are a logging town, a farming town, a railroad town, an industrial town and so much more. We are Auburn with a HEART all in capitals and we are there for you so that with us you can become More Than You Imagined!

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