Seattle au pairs toured the old underground city in our first joint cluster event in nearly two years.  Jan 2019 marked the last time our APIA clusters were allowed to safely congregate, but this past Sunday, with the help of Beneath the Streets (https://www.beneath-the-streets.com) Covid protocols, we gathered again and it felt so good.  Four clusters came together to hear about the Seattle fire (set accidentally by a Swedish immigrant boiling glue) and how this disaster helped Seattle to rebuild the city above a safe sea level, brought in funds from around the country and ultimately set up our city for more success should it never have happened.  Silver linings!  As we learn from the past, we know we are again in a great rebuild moment and it is our job to remain hopeful given this knowledge in our darker moments.

Counselors noted that this same underground tour has now changed to include histories of those marginalized populations that had been less tracked  – histories of our first Seattle black-owned businesses that gave back to the community and inspired more black-owned businesses – our strong women (10% of the population in a mining town) coming to become our first graduates of the newly formed UW and those of the Seattle LGBTQ+ populations in those early days that had once enjoyed nightlife underground only.  History from this wide angle lens shows us that the more we include everyone in our community, the stronger we become and this progressive Seattle town learned many lessons  when the city was at a lower level (literally and figuratively.)  We are poised again to be learning many more as we again rebuild to be more inclusive and stronger together.