Xczar: Quiet force behind Ferndale’s murals

Continued from 19 to serving the community as county assessor. Xczar also once served on city council. Two roles in government that are important and often thankless. But Xczar is happy to do it, especially her role as assessor thanks to her “fantastic team,” she said.

“I think because I had been on the city council, and previously I’d been on the planning commission, and then through being an appraiser - I really felt like I had all of these collective skills that were going to be really beneficial for this position,” Xczar said.

Through this position and her time on city council, she learned how hard it can be to hear the needs of the community, but have your hands tied when it comes to being able to fix it.

“Being on city council, a lot of things come to you that you really can’t do anything about, even though you want to,” Xczar said.

This knowledge of the limits of what government agencies can do, motivates her in her roles at the FAC and Connect Ferndale.

Decorating downtown

The idea came out of a desire to help breathe some life into downtown where there were “a lot of vacant fronts,” Xczar said, which led her to wonder, “How do we help?”

Thus, the brainstorming process began. Xczar said most ideas she came across were either not the right fit or too expensive.

Xczar participated in a workshop where they talked about a community that had created a series of murals. The attendees were challenged to think about how Instagram- worthy their own town was. Xczar laughs as she remembers how she thought this was a silly idea before sitting with it and realizing it might be worth considering.

“This has the potential to draw people here. Maybe they’ll stop for lunch or hit the antique store,” Xczar said.

Thus, the idea for the murals came to be and Xczar did what she does best: got to work and made it happen. Over the past few years she has brought multiple murals to Ferndale, working with various artists and businesses.

“I learned a long time ago, especially with the arts commission stuff, a lot of times you can do great things if you’re willing to do the work,” Xczar said.

Through the FAC, Xczar and her team do even more than making these murals appear.

They regularly host events meant to bring community members together, and to have fun. From crafting days at FrinGe Brewing, to knitting get-togethers to create sweaters for trees, they create opportunities to connect.

Connect Ferndale

Much like how her work at the FAC is about connecting community members and bettering Ferndale, so is the goal of the other major force in town that she is behind: Connect Ferndale.

Connect Ferndale is on a mission to cultivate “community growth and connection through civic participation and community building to advance inclusion, honor diversity, and encourage participation for everyone in our community,” according to the organization’s website.

The group began in 2019 as a response to an incident where a group called Patriot Front, which was identified as a hate group by the AntiDefamation League, posted flyers in downtown Ferndale.

“There was a big push for the city to do something, but the city can’t really do anything,” Xczar said. “So, it was kind of a push for some of us in the community. How can we actually do something?”

Xczar and O’Connor were both motivated by the incident and had the idea to create this group focused on connection.

As they began envisioning what the group would look like, they imagined group dinners and events that brought people together. Unfortunately, this was just before a global pandemic would take over, creating the need for everyone to stay separated for the sake of safety. Again, where others might call it quits, Xczar and the team behind Connect Ferndale persevered.

They got creative, finding ways to continue fostering connection, while keeping ev- eryone safely separated.

“We sort of switched and we thought, ‘Okay, well we still want to be active, we still want to do stuff. We can’t necessarily bring people together.’ So we really thought about it,” Xczar said. “Let’s start with social media, let’s start with education. Let’s start with identifying the cultures that are in the community and starting to highlight them.”

Xczar said they ended up hosting book clubs and other educational opportunities for the community over zoom, while honing in on how the group would look and function to serve Ferndale.

The nonprofit seeks to fulfill its mission through hosting various events and educational opportunities.

Last year, Connect Ferndale hosted a history walk where attendees were educated on the history of Ferndale “with particular emphasis on highlighting the histories that have been under-represented in Ferndale’s local history,” ac- cording to the Connect Ferndale website. Xczar said they plan to bring the walk back this year.

They also host film screenings and even created their own video last year for and about Juneteenth called “I am the Hope and the Dream.” This video can still be viewed on YouTube. They hope to create another video this year highlighting the experience of Black people in Whatcom County.

This is just a small sample of the projects the group is taking on.

Looking forward

What does the future look like for Xczar? Since this is a reelection year, Xczar will be busy with her role as assessor. But even a big task like this will not keep her from tackling other projects.

Xczar wants to see Connect Ferndale continue to grow. Xczar also looks forward to the upcoming events, including bringing back the history walk and creating another June - teenth video. But it’s her project, the murals, she seems to be particularly focused on as she is always looking to bring in a new work of art to brighten the walls of Ferndale’s downtown.

“I think the continuation of the murals is important. I love that project in general,” Xczar said. “I think more art downtown in general is beneficial.”

People enjoying the murals as they drive through downtown might not know that Xczar is the person they should thank for bringing a splash of beauty into their day, but that’s alright with her.

From Connect Ferndale to her work as assessor, she doesn’t do any of it for praise. Just as long as this community she loves is growing and getting better, that’s all that matters.

“The work is really important,” Xczar said. “I live here, I’m raising kids here. I want my community to do better for them.”

-- Contact Sarah McCauley at sarah@lyndentribune.com.