My current whistle supply, bagged and bulk.

For the last few months, the sound of whistles has become a regular occurrence in Chicago. They act as an instant alert system that ICE is on the streets, as a call to action to neighbors to come out, and as a rapid warning for those that need to take cover. Parents, whistles around their necks, have stood outside of schools on patrol. Businesses across the city and suburbs have bowls of whistles available. The zine produced by the Pilsen Arts & Community House, "Form a Crowd, Stay Loud," has become iconic, and "Whistlemania" events held everywhere from bars to libraries have brought hundreds of people together to fold zines and pack whistle kit bags that have put tens of thousands of whistles on the streets.

The whistle has been an effective weapon against the occupation of Chicago.

Effective enough that Greg Bovino and his band of Border Patrol thugs left our city last week. They moved their attack to Charlotte, North Carolina, where they were immediately greeted with the sounds of whistles. Now reports have them moving to Louisiana. Where they'll go after that is anyone's guess.

Which is why it's time to whistle up wherever you are.

Inspired by Chicago indie publisher Marc Fisher, I started buying and distributing whistles sometime in September. Originally I ordered around 100 to put into our Little Free Library and to send to some friends that ran stores in Chicago. Over the weeks that followed I ended up getting a few thousand whistles out to folks, constantly buying whistles from any place that had some in stock at a decent price.

In the spirit of getting whistles out to people, I thought I'd share some notes and resources on whistles so you can start stocking up wherever you are. Please note: this is from my own personal experience and is nowhere near definitive.

Buying Whistles

I bought whistles from anywhere that had them in stock and available for as cheap as possible. That meant a lot of random sellers on Amazon, which I usually try and avoid, but also some of the Chinese direct-to-consumer sites like Shein and Ali Express (which were cheapest by a lot but also wildly unpredictable in terms of arrival time). I feel shitty about it, but they were the easiest places to get hundreds of whistles quickly for not much money. Any port in a storm. I do know folks who ordered from domestic party supply and carnival supply places, though the whistles were of pretty cheap quality. But again: any port in a storm.

Stock comes and goes very quickly and prices vary wildly. I found it was easiest to do a search for "bulk whistles" and see what comes up. My goal was to try and find whatever whistle I could, with an attached lanyard, for as cheap as possible, in quantity, that would arrive with some level of predictability.

That combination of needs usually meant paying around 30 cents a whistle. Occasionally I found deals as low as about 10 cents, and sometimes I went as high as 50 if stock was low, delivery was fast, and attacks were active. I did get a few deals that were cheaper than that, but the whistle quality reflected it for sure. My personal favorite whistles are these orange alert whistles that I think are designed to clip onto a life jacket. I've bought so many variations of this design.

A note on availability: You could see Amazon's stock drop rapidly when Chicago really started to move on whistles and I shudder to think what happens when a place the size of New York starts ordering en mass. Do not expect that the same deal will exist the next time you look. For instance, I bought this batch of 100 whistles for $14.99 a few weeks ago. Now it's $28.99 (still a good deal). In between it didn't exist at all.

A note on whistle color: First, let me just say that any whistle is better than no whistle. But I personally really like bright whistles with a bright lanyard, so that you can easily identify folks that are also out on the street. This was especially helpful for school patrols, but really at any point being able to see someone from a distance and know they were also out there was a relief and a help.

A note on bulk buying: If this was all happening before the tariffs, it would have likely been very easy to bulk buy an extraordinary number of whistles from China. However, tariffs make things far more complicated than I had time to sort out, so I never tried it.

3D Printing Whistles

As consistent whistle stock became hard to come by, a lot of people in Chicago started 3D printing whistles. Like, an incredible number of whistles. I've heard of one group that printed 60,000 whistles alone.

Even a small printer can print a batch of a couple dozen whistles in a few hours and my understanding is that the per-piece cost is measured in pennies. Honestly, with the price of decent printers as low as a few hundred dollars, I might be investing in this method in the future. I certainly spent much more than that on whistles.

There are a lot of whistle designs available for printing online. Chicago whistle printer Lauren, who goes by bibliogrrl online, has put up a collection of tested whistle shape files on Makerworld. Her go-to is the quick-to-print Tiny Emergency Whistle and has produced thousands on a $200 Bambu Lab A1 mini.

Of course, 3D printing produces only the whistle itself. If you want the whistle with a lanyard, obviously that's a manual process after the printing. Folks have been tying yarn onto whistles, using old lanyards from conferences, or letting people sort out their own methods. Again: any port in a storm.

Also, if you have never 3D printed anything, know that it is not instant (runs can take hours) and it is not foolproof. While the current state of 3D printing is better now than it ever has been, it's not perfect.

Whistle Instructions

It seems like a whistle should be enough, but bagging up a whistle with a little instruction book has proven to be super effective.

The instructions for whistles are very very simple:

• If you see ice in the area, blow short bursts on the whistle.
• If they're actively snatching someone, long blows.

The purpose is not to stop the action, but to warn people that ICE is in the area and to bring out your neighbors as witnesses and to amplify the sound as a warning to others. It also annoys the Feds, a nice bonus.

These instructions were codified in a one-sheet, eight-page zine made by Chicago's Pilsen Arts & Community House that has become the visual symbol of the movement. That zine has been translated into tons of languages, shortened into cards and flyers and pretty much any other method you can think of.

And while an eight page zine for two sentences of instructions might be overkill, folding the zine has been a great organizing tactic. Bringing people together to fold zines and assemble whistle kits has brought so many people together at a moment when bringing people together is crucial.

That said, for my own use I created a little business-card sized instruction card with the Pilsen Arts instructions on one side and the ICIRR phone number to call if you spot ICE in Illinois on the other. I just printed them through a cheap biz card printer. The Pilsen Arts & Community House folks encourage remixing, so do what you need to do to get the information out. Say it with me now: any port in a storm.

Distribution

The best tip I can give you for distribution is talk to people. Talk to friends, see who needs 'em and who knows people that need 'em. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to store owners you might be friendly with. Stock your neighborhoods' Little Free Libraries. If you're a church, temple, or mosque person, talk to folks there.

I started putting whistles in my own Little Free Library and getting them to friends that had shops in the city. By the end, I was dropping whistles at assembly events and shipping to friends and family who could hand them off to their circles. We handed out whistles to school patrolers in our neighborhood. I even had neighbors ring my bell and leave with handfuls of whistles for their church groups or community gatherings.

I can't speak to organizing a whistle event directly, but the ones I've helped stock were held at bars and libraries and never had less than a few dozen people show up on extremely short notice, usually just a flyer shared on social or on a Signal chat.

Additional resources

The aforementioned Pilsen Arts & Community House has become a clearinghouse for whistle graphics, zines, and so much more. They even have folders on their Google Drive for other states and cities now. They could use your support.

I'm in awe of the work Emily Hilleren has done in whistle organizing in Chicago. She's personally responsible for getting thousands of whistles out onto the streets every week. She's collected an amazing list of resources, holds whistle assembly events regularly, and is also fundraising to cover some of her considerable costs.

And it's worth another plug for the Good Whistles 3D printing resource compiled by Lauren on Makerworld. There are so many shape files there and it's nice that she went to the effort of curating a tested list.

I'm sure there are things I've forgotten here, but this is as complete a brain dump as I can muster.

Go, whistle up, keep yourself safe and keep each other safe. We're all we've got.