An Interview with WCLS

In late 2025, the city of Sumas experienced severe flooding. Months later, many are still not able to move back into their homes. The Spring Adult Social was FOSL’s first event following the flood, and what we hoped would be a good chance to let loose for a bit.

Prior to the the event, the Whatcom County Library System (wcls.org) sent out an email update to residents of Sumas about the status of our library repairs. I was asked the following questions, and my responses were sent out with the WCLS update. I even made it into the City of Sumas newsletter. Awesome!

Question & Answer

Why do you volunteer?

We volunteer because a need is there. We first started attending FOSL simply because somebody asked us to come. We have long loved the library but never did anything like this before moving to Sumas ¹. Turns out a community-focused group specifically supporting the library is a great gateway into volunteer work. To be honest, we barely think of it as volunteer work. We hype up the library and throw community parties. We aren’t “taking one for the team”, we are making friends and working to improve the place we spend all of our time at: home

Why is the library important to the Sumas community?

In general, there aren’t too many “third spaces” around anymore (or at least physical ones). The library fills a gap as a place that you don’t live in, you don’t work at, you get to just be there. Like a mall in the 90s. It’s a place we can meet, create experiences, and browse through thousands of items just because we feel like it. No expectations beyond not being too loud. In Sumas particularly, our library building is also our community center. The two halves of the building regularly collaborate, creating a space that just doesn’t exist anywhere else in town.

And that’s ignoring all of the actual practical uses of the library. A giant media collection on loan with generous return times for no charge and no late fees. A place to print documents. A place to learn painting. A place to learn paper crafts. A place to get tech help. A place for clubs to meet. A place for math tutoring. A place to play chess. A place for FOSL to meet once per month on the first Monday of each month at 6:30pm. It is a lot of places to many people.

Why are the Friends hosting the Spring Adult Social/what do you hope guests will experience?

Last year, FOSL decided it was time for an event aimed at adults. While most of our events are not necessarily “kid events”, trying to make things family-friendly kind of shifts it in that direction. Last year’s Valentine & Wine fundraiser was a great success, fully funding our summer movie event and providing a great night out for the 21+ crowd. We immediately knew this would be a new yearly event.

Following the 2025 flood we quickly decided to remove the fundraising emphasis and focus more on the “adult’s night out” aspect. We want the adults that are going to meetings, talking to insurance, paying the bills, repairing the damage, or just dealing with whatever they need to deal with to escape that for a bit. More than that, we want to connect with our neighbors, eat some burgers, and share some beverages. Additionally, we wanted to throw our support at the Sumas businesses.

Anything else you want to share about the Friends?

I need people to know how incredible Deanna Lambert is (and her sister Heather). Deanna got into FOSL around the same time we did and is our current treasurer. What people may not know is that Deanna is also our FOSL mascot named “Fossil”. Many have seen the stegosaurus that walks in the Sumas Community Days parade. Deanna is not only inside the costume, she hand made the entire thing! Deanna created the original Fossil design back in 2024 for our coloring contest (check out the flyer!)

FOSL is trying out something new this year. We ordered 100 custom stickers for each of our planned events for 2026, starting with the Adult Spring Social. The unique designs for each of the stickers were drawn and colored by Deanna and Heather. I’m not going to spoil what they look like. If you want to see, you know where to find us on March 14th!

Footnotes

1. My wife Sarah and I moved from out of state to Sumas in the summer of 2020. ↩