Meet Our Rainmakers: Laura Gibbons

Rainmaker Laura Gibbons says, "I appreciate the grassroots coverage of a diverse range of local topics and communities."

by Amanda Sorell

Welcome to a new series: Meet Our Rainmakers!

Rainmakers are readers like you who make regular donations to the Emerald — their contributions help us amplify the authentic voices of the South End, and we couldn't do it without them.

Stay tuned for more Rainmaker mini-profiles, where you can learn more about the communities that support the Emerald.

Want to be a Rainmaker? Head to our official Kindful website to support BIPOC-led media in South Seattle with a monthly contribution of any amount.

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Laura Gibbons

Laura Gibbons, a biostatistician who works on Alzheimer's disease research at the University of Washington, has lived in Columbia City for 30 years and has been a Rainmaker for five. She no longer remembers how she first heard about the Emerald, but she reads nearly every piece it publishes, saying, "I appreciate the grassroots coverage of a diverse range of local topics and communities. If people have the resources, this is a great way to support a way to learn about the people and events in the South End that are not well-covered elsewhere."

Since the pandemic, Gibbons prefers to spend time in outdoor places, and many of her favorites are parks, including Seward Park and Martha Washington Park, where volunteers have worked to restore a native oak woodland and other native understory plants.

Gibbons is involved in several of her own volunteer projects. She's a co-lead of 350 Seattle's Aviation Team, which is "part of a coalition of groups that are trying to address the harm that's caused by the noise and emissions of planes coming out of SeaTac and also the County airport, Boeing Field," she said. She came to this work from wanting to address the climate impacts of aviation and then "got to know other people who were focusing on the noise and emissions impacts on health."

She also volunteers for a project led by women in the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Capitol Hill that makes menstruation kits for youth in Cameroon and neighboring African countries. "The goal is to help girls stay in school because they have menstrual supplies. And I love to sew. And so this is a good way to get to know a variety of people and make things that will be used," she said.

Gibbons' thorough perusal of the Emerald offers both information and entertainment. She learned about the Lavender Rights Project through the Emerald and then became a supporter. And she really enjoys "DOOM LOOP" too, "because we all need to laugh."

Amanda Sorell is a storyteller who lives in Seattle. She's an editor for the Emerald. Read her newsletter at eClips.Substack.com.

Featured image designed by the Emerald team; photo courtesy of Laura Gibbons.