Support Hawthorne Park Arrestees
Donation protected
On September 22, 2020, the Medford Police Department arrested people who’ve been living and volunteering in Hawthorne Park since wildfires in the Rogue Valley displaced thousands. The arrests include camp residents, volunteers, and journalists.
The encampment in Hawthorne Park began on September 9 as a place where people who lost their homes and belongings in the Almeda Fire could find food, water, tents, sleeping bags, medical aid, and other supplies and services. This includes people who were living on the Greenway in Talent and Medford before the fires.
Despite the ongoing state of emergency and the lack of adequate evacuation sites in the area, the Medford Police distributed notices of illegal camping and removed people who have nowhere else to call home. For many of the people who’ve been staying in park for the last two weeks, Hawthorne Park has been the only place they felt safe to sleep, leave their belongings, access free food and services, and ask for help finding other resources in the area.
This fundraiser is organized by members of Siskiyou Rising Tide (SORT), an environmental and social justice organization in Jackson and Josephine Counties in southern Oregon. We are an informal volunteer community group with no staff and do not have nonprofit status. We were asked by people living in the park and mutual aid volunteers at the park to help by fundraising for any bail, jail support, or legal costs that might occur if people were arrested for trying to feed and help each other after the Almeda fire.
Please send a donation today! Funds are being used to post bail for those who were arrested in Hawthorne Park on September 22, 2020; to buy items those arrestees may need immediately after release from jail, such as food and drinks; to pay for ongoing fees related to the arrests, such as court costs and fines; and to pay for transportation to and from court. At this point money is not being disbursed to individuals, it is going directly to the the Medford Municipal Court for bail and to a local grocery store for supplies needed by people on their release. SORT will be paying for these things up front until the money from this fundraiser is available, and then we will withdraw money from gofundme to our account to reimburse what we spent. We will keep receipts for everything. Going forward, money from this fundraiser will come into the SORT account and be paid directly from that account to the court and/or lawyers for future fees related to the arrests of people camping in Hawthorne and their supporters. If the donations collected exceed the arrest-related needs, the remaining funds will go to support other social justice causes in southern Oregon. None of this money will be kept by SORT. We are committed to financial transparency and we will post updates with how money is being spent and if there is anything extra.
The encampment in Hawthorne Park began on September 9 as a place where people who lost their homes and belongings in the Almeda Fire could find food, water, tents, sleeping bags, medical aid, and other supplies and services. This includes people who were living on the Greenway in Talent and Medford before the fires.
Despite the ongoing state of emergency and the lack of adequate evacuation sites in the area, the Medford Police distributed notices of illegal camping and removed people who have nowhere else to call home. For many of the people who’ve been staying in park for the last two weeks, Hawthorne Park has been the only place they felt safe to sleep, leave their belongings, access free food and services, and ask for help finding other resources in the area.
This fundraiser is organized by members of Siskiyou Rising Tide (SORT), an environmental and social justice organization in Jackson and Josephine Counties in southern Oregon. We are an informal volunteer community group with no staff and do not have nonprofit status. We were asked by people living in the park and mutual aid volunteers at the park to help by fundraising for any bail, jail support, or legal costs that might occur if people were arrested for trying to feed and help each other after the Almeda fire.
Please send a donation today! Funds are being used to post bail for those who were arrested in Hawthorne Park on September 22, 2020; to buy items those arrestees may need immediately after release from jail, such as food and drinks; to pay for ongoing fees related to the arrests, such as court costs and fines; and to pay for transportation to and from court. At this point money is not being disbursed to individuals, it is going directly to the the Medford Municipal Court for bail and to a local grocery store for supplies needed by people on their release. SORT will be paying for these things up front until the money from this fundraiser is available, and then we will withdraw money from gofundme to our account to reimburse what we spent. We will keep receipts for everything. Going forward, money from this fundraiser will come into the SORT account and be paid directly from that account to the court and/or lawyers for future fees related to the arrests of people camping in Hawthorne and their supporters. If the donations collected exceed the arrest-related needs, the remaining funds will go to support other social justice causes in southern Oregon. None of this money will be kept by SORT. We are committed to financial transparency and we will post updates with how money is being spent and if there is anything extra.
Fundraising team: Hawthorne park support (2)
Siskiyou Mutual Aid Cooperative
Organizer
Medford, OR
Grayson Flory
Team member
