Many Bellingham businesses showed their support for the nationwide “Ice Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom” demonstration on Friday, Jan. 30, closing their doors as a show of support and solidarity.
Thousands of people across the country advocated for the withdrawal of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minneapolis due to their indiscriminate arrest strategy and involvement in multiple fatalities, most recently the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Bry's Filipino, COF&, The Comics Place and Good Earth Pottery were some of the many businesses that shut their doors in solidarity, while others donated proceeds to nonprofits for the day.
Aegis Games, a tabletop game and hobby store, kept its doors open Friday. A portion of the day's sales were donated to various Minnesotan nonprofits. Noah Beddome, one of the co-owners of Aegis Games, said they wanted to give people a space for comfort.
“With all the scary, terrible stuff going on right now, people need to be together, work together and be connected,” Beddome said. “We didn't want to deprive people of the community space, but also we didn't think it was right to be open and not do something to support them.”
According to their Instagram, Dakota Art Store also donated a portion of sales that day to Community to Community Development, a Whatcom-based organization that advocates for food sovereignty and immigration reform.
Chrissy Ellsworth, one of the assistant managers at Dakota Art Store, said they decided to stay open because this was the owner’s last year before retirement. As a show of support to protesters nearby, the team provided free materials for signs.
“Art notoriously fights fascism,” Ellsworth said. “Artists are important and we wanted to encourage that kind of resistance. Protesting is a fantastic way to meet other people and find different ways to make the biggest impact.”
Allison Lam (she/her) is a city news reporter for The Front. She is a junior public relations pre-major with a communication studies minor. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting and watching sitcoms. She can be reached at allisonlam.thefront@gmail.com.
