On April 27th, 2003, Lauren went on her first white water rafting trip. As with many of the things she attempted in life, she decided to take her first trip on a difficult class 4/5 river. It was a perfectly sunny day and she had had a wonderful morning rafting - the company had already decided she would be great to have on staff. At roughly 1:00 p.m. her raft hit a rock - Lauren was thrown into the river and drowned.

Lauren was a true activist. She was on the front lines of anti-war and anti-globalization rallies. She believed in a free and unbiased press and was a member of the Green Party. Even in lean times, she contributed to National Public Radio, Amnesty International, and The Cascade Forest Alliance among others. She believed in the power of community, was anti urban sprawl, and consistently went out of her way to frequent "mom and pop" establishments rather than big businesses.

She was also an avid environmentalist. She believed that a true environmental commitment ranged from never using paper cups and stringent recycling to those more radical actions performed by groups such as Greenpeace, and Earth First!. We would often both listen to NPR or Pacifica Radio at the same time, I up in the house, she from her studio in the basement - it wasn't difficult to hear her (loudly) cursing the environmental and human rights offenders as the news stories about them unfolded - the sound would be carried up through the pipes and vents. (and out around our block)