When a late-March blizzard threatened to derail the third No Kings mobilization, CVI answered it the only way CVI would: by building a painted snow sculpture at Owen Park spelling out “No Kings 3 — March 28” and posting it with the line “We ain’t afraid of no stinkin’ blizzard!”

The Monday before the march, Rachel Maddow put that photo and post on air — reading the line with a laugh — as she introduced Ezra Levin and the news that Bruce Springsteen would join the Minneapolis rally. Then, on March 28, roughly 6,500 people marched through Eau Claire anyway, with 600 more in Chippewa Falls. After the event, Maddow featured CVI again in her lead-story roundup of protests across the states.

The numbers told the story of the entire No Kings arc: 3,200, then 6,000, then 6,500 in Eau Claire. In Chippewa Falls — population roughly 16,000 — turnout went from 140 to 280 to 600. Two cities mobilized at once, each time larger, and this time through a blizzard. WEAU, WQOW, and Civic Media all covered the march.

A mobilization that keeps growing, and a group whose sense of humor travels as far as its turnout.