Block party spreads message of 'love not hate'
Rabbi Francine Green Roston speaking at the Love Not Hate event in downtown Whitefish on Saturday, January 7.(Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)
A crowd of hundreds gathered in downtown Whitefish for the Love Not Hate event in downtown Whitefish on Saturday, January 7.(Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)
View of the Love Not Hate event in downtown Whitefish on Saturday afternoon, January 7, from the roof of the Great Northern Brewing Company.(Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)
Hundreds of hardy souls braved frigid temperatures to share a message of togetherness across racial, gender and religious lines at the Love Not Hate block party near Depot Park Saturday morning.
With temperatures hovering at or below zero for much of the free event, the crowd huddled around a small stage on Central Ave. — while hundreds more packed the lobby of the nearby O’Shaughnessy Center — to watch speakers and musicians from around the Flathead Valley, including Whitefish City Councilor Richard Hildner, Rabbi Francine Roston, and musicians Halladay Quist and Jack Gladstone.
“I’m so overwhelmed,” event co-organizer Jessica Laferriere said. “It was such a beautiful celebration; the way the community came together to support our vision in ways that we never could have expected.”
The crowd found some refuge from the cold through the generosity of both private donors and corporate sponsors, who provided free hand-warmers, hot drinks, cookies, fruit and pastries.
Tom Tornow, a Whitefish attorney, set up a table outside and handed out cups of warm cider. Others distributed hot chocolate, coffee and food inside the O’Shaughnessy Center, and a warming tent was set up outdoors for those who could not fit into the crowded lobby.
“Our business sponsors supported us from the beginning,” Laferriere sad. “It’s really been a community effort and it was far greater than we ever could have thought because of all that support.”
Laferriere and Dominica Cleveras conceived of the block party in response to a video of white supremacist and part-time Whitefish resident Richard Spencer addressing a Washington, D.C. crowd in November with a speech that included the line, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory,” to which some in the audience responded with a Nazi salute.
Saturday’s speakers, however, largely avoided mentioning Spencer or recent threats by an anti-Semitic blog to hold an armed march in Whitefish, instead focusing on promoting unity and equality.
After the final performance, which included Gladstone leading the crowd in a sing-along cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Halleuljah,” Laferriere looked to the future.
“Our hope is to make this an annual event and we hope to do it again,” Laferriere said. “Hopefully in warmer weather.”