Report from the Center
Our AmeriCorp volunteer Judy is back staffing the Center on Mondays from 1:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Wednesdays from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. We are happy to have Judy back after a short medical leave and appreciate her time. She will be with us through August as AmeriCorp was able to extend her time so she can fulfill her AmeriCorp requirements. Unfortunately our AmeriCorp volunteer Liz has had to end her AmeriCorp volunteer time at the Center due to having to take her own medical leave. Liz will be okay and we wish her well in her healing process and thank her for the hours she was able to give us. We were very lucky to have Liz and continue to be fortunate to have Judy. Our steadfast volunteer Johnnie Schmeckpepper continues to give us his valuable time and has been able to fill in and staff the Center. Johnnie also continues to monitor the MySpace site and calendar. Thanks so much Johnnie!
The Center's hours continue to be Mondays 1:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Wednesdays 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Saturdays 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We hope to stay open true to these hours through the Summer and would always welcome any volunteers who would like to be trained to help us out until our next part-time AmeriCorp volunteer starts in early September 2008.
The Center continues to offer safe space for the Transgender Support group to meet the first Wednesday of the month and also for the AA Support group for recovering LGBT people every Friday night starting at 7:00. And PRIDE continues to meet every other Monday as they plan for the big event August 23, 2008.
We have scheduled our second Open House for Saturday July 12, 08 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The idea behind the Open Houses is to offer a set time for folks to come and meet others and socialize and maybe meet others who have similar interests. Our volunteers tell me repeatedly that LGBT people stop in frequently with requests such as finding other lesbian moms with young children or newly out folks who have young adult children dealing with their parent's "new" orientation or asking about resources for LGBT who are grieving their partner's death. Our issues are many and as diverse as all of us but we share a commonality in needing to find others like us with similar interests and concerns. Please consider stopping in. We will serve some light refreshments.
Leslie Scheld
Center Manager