Seattle Shakespeare Company is partnering with WashMasks for a school supply drive for the children and youth of farmworkers in Eastern Washington. Despite the pandemic and the dangers of fires and smoke, farmworkers across the Yakima Valley rise before dawn to pick the food that feeds us. Farmworkers can be as young as twelve years old. Seattle Shakespeare’s touring shows regularly perform in schools throughout Eastern Washington and our hearts go out to the families in these areas who have faced increasing obstacles during the pandemic.
Now through September 30, WashMasks will gather and take donations of school and art supplies for the children and youth of farmworkers. Items can either be brought to Wooden O’s final performance on Sunday, August 8 at Seward Park or purchased through the link buttons below.
From backpacks to calculators to coloring pencils to books– we hope you’ll join Seattle Shakespeare and WashMasks to support the learning and creativity of these students. They and their families are the hands behind our food. Let us thank them with acts of joy and love.
WashMasks is an all-volunteer mutual aid collective consisting of artists, educators, public school administrators, and the extended arts community across Washington state. WashMasks volunteers work to provide care, creative joy, and community to Washington’s farmworkers, their families, and other BIPOC rural communities. They believe that these communities deserve support, dignity, and advocacy.
Mutual aid is an act of solidarity among communities and neighbors. Mutual aid work happens when communities work collaboratively in addressing community needs. WashMasks works with rural community activists, schools, organizations, educators, youth, and farmworkers themselves. WashMasks aims to amplify and support these communities and their leaders, not lead.
As WashMasks is a mutual aid collective, they are unable to take monetary donations. They can take donations of goods.