Published:
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
The ACLU of Washington has a team of all-star volunteers who man the front desk for us. We would like you to meet some of them.
Five years ago, a college sociology project on alternatives to incarceration led Caity Yates to Town Hall Seattle to listen to a talk by ACLU-WA Criminal Justice Director Alison Holcomb. She’s followed both Alison and the ACLU’s activities ever since. In the past few years, Caity has worked her way up to be co-manager of the Seattle Anne Taylor Loft store. She is very happy there, but she decided that she “wanted to get involved in something that made more of an impact than choosing what shirt to pair with what pants in a display.”
Caity is most passionate about the issues of prisoners’ rights and capital punishment, and because she has long followed these issues and the work the ACLU has done on them, she knew that this was where she wanted to work. She has been a volunteer receptionist here just two months, but already feels like she is making a difference by helping the organization run smoothly. She has been following the Northwest Detention Center hunger strikes and the forced solitary confinement of strikers as punishment with great interest. She is proud to be part of the organization that has been representing prisoners against any efforts to force-feed them or restrict their freedom of speach.
An avid runner, Caity is going to do a 10k run this weekend, and has decided to start training for a half marathon race next. She says she has never run so far in her life, but she joined a group that meets twice a week on Capital Hill to train together. Just like volunteering here, she says, meeting up with others who share your passions forces you to follow through.
