Sara Smiley and husband Jason Sawyer own a woodworking shop in downtown Morton where they sell topographic maps and niche furniture. Smiley is a board member on the Lewis County Dignity Guild, a nonprofit that hosted this year’s Lewis County Pride event and provides signs frequently seen across the county that read “rural Americans against racism” and Pride flag-colored signs that read “Lewis County Welcomes Everyone.” Smiley and Sawyer’s shop window is adorned with the signs and Pride flags. Out front, they have a rainbow bench called “The Buddy Bench.” The week of June 13, someone vandalized their window. Then, early in the morning on Saturday, June 24, the business was one in a string of four locations significant to the Dignity Guild that were vandalized: four full-sized windows were smashed in. At the other three sites, a rainbow-painted fence in Chehalis, “The Friendship Fence,” was splattered with black paint; the organization’s new headquarters in Chehalis near the county courthouse had several windows broken; and a flagpole that hosted a Pride flag was bent and the flag stolen. To read a full story about the vandalism, visit https://tinyurl.com/3udmbrmy.
