Community Compass
Community Compass is a service of OITM. GLBT organizations from around the state are invited to provide brief — 200 words or less — descriptions of recent or upcoming activities and events. Send your submissions to us by email by the 15th of the month.
Family
Film at the UU
The Welcoming Congregation Committee invites
you to a special event at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington
(at the top of Church St.) where Meema Spadola, Director and Producer,
will present her film Our House: a very real documentary about kids
of gay and lesbian parents. This hour-long documentary is a frank
exploration of what it means to grow up with gay or lesbian parents. It
follows the highs and lows of children ages 9-23 from 5 very different
families.
This event is made possible in part by a Unity grant from the Samara Foundation.
A viewer's guide is available online at
www.colage.org/documentary/index.html
There is a link to the PDF file at
the bottom of the web page. Please join us on Sunday May 15 at 12:30 PM
in the Community Room. Light refreshments will be provided. Childcare
will be available if arranged for in advance. Please call the office at
862-5630 if you will need childcare.
Return of Youth Pride
The Annual Youth Pride celebration
will commence at noon on May 14th with a speak-out on the City Hall steps.
The day will be filled with fabulous festivities including work shops
and games, and will go out with a bang at the always enchanting Queer
Prom starting at 7pm. Come watch the drag shows and hit the dance floor
with whomever you want at YOUR prom. For more info www.outrightvt.org
Walk For Life
Please join us on Saturday, May 21,
for the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont’s 18th Annual Walk for
Life. To honor and support our community's actions in fighting the worldwide
AIDS epidemic, our theme this year is "Stepping Up, Moving Forward."
We will gather at the Centre Congregational Church on Main Street at 10:00
am and walk up Main Street to the Brattleboro Town Common in remembrance
of all those whose lives are affected by HIV/AIDS. The program on the
Common will include music, speakers, and a welcoming noontime meal.
The AIDS Project is privileged this
year to welcome Terje Anderson, Executive Director of the National Association
of People with AIDS, as speaker for the Walk. Terje (pronounced "Terry")
serves as a member of the Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention
and Treatment for the federal government. He has in the past been AIDS
Program Chief at the Vermont Department of Health, and was the first Executive
Director of Vermont CARES.
The program will conclude with the
reading of the names of loved ones from our community who have died from
AIDS in the last 16 years. Lunch will be served free of charge after the
program, around noon.
The Walk for Life is the major annual
community event of the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont. Come and be part
of this event by collecting pledges and walking, by sponsoring a walker,
or by joining in on Saturday morning. The AIDS Walk is an opportunity
for you to show support for our vigorous fight against AIDS. The Project
asks those who participate in the Walk to seek pledge sponsors for their
effort. Pledge sheets are available online at our website, www.AIDSProjectSouthernVermont.org
or call (802) 254-8263 or e-mail mff@sover.net
for more information.
OITM Volunteers Rock!
In the same breath that we embrace
Jackie Weinstock with our congratulations on winning this year's Volunteer
of the Year award, we do also embrace each of our dedicated volunteers
with whose help OITM succeeds in reaching thousands upon thousands
of readers in Vermont and across this nation.
Specifically, we thank our volunteer
route drivers: Fran Moravcsik, Will Freeman, Danny, Bennett Law, Tim,
Keith Ribnick, Oliver, Keith Goslant, Patrick, Amy, Liz, Rick, Cheri,
Linn, Daryl, Cynthia, Kathy, Thom Fleury, Nat, Lisa, and Rick Wold. We
thank our Webguru, Tania Kupczak; and those wonderful folks who helped
us get the April paper in the mail: Euan, Harry Russell, Kate M., Paul
Olsen, Greg Weaver and, of course, Dan Brink. It should be noted that
our own Dan Brink and Bob Wolff were two of the seven nominees for that
Volunteer of the Year award. Congratulations, Dan and Bob. We think you're
great!
And, of course, there are all the
volunteers whose writing, photographs, and drawings fill the pages! Plus
the fabulous volunteers on the Board of Directors!
Hey – why don't you join the
fun, become a new volunteer at MPM/OITM! We'll thank you for your effort
right here!
Windham Conference
Just a reminder that the Unity Project-funded
Gay / Lesbian / Bisexual / Transgender Conference on GLBT community activism
and organizing in Windham County is happening in Brattleboro on Saturday,
May 14. The all-day event is free to participants. The goal of the conference
is to inspire and energize current and would-be community leaders and
doers to create ways to strengthen and support the GLBT community in Windham
County and beyond. There will be a fabulous lunch, too!
From the conference, we will be recruiting
three people to go to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Creating
Change Conference, to be held in Oakland, CA in November. The grant covers
the travel, hotel, food, and conference fees of the people selected to
attend the conference.
We are excited to have Jeff Bercuvitz
facilitate the daylong conference. Jeff is one of North America's leading
experts on the relationship between personal, organizational and community
regeneration and a coach to community-builders and leaders around the
world. Over the past fifteen years, Jeff has trained and coached thousands
of activists, community builders and leaders, helping them discover creative,
inexpensive and enjoyable ways to make their efforts more successful,
as well as more personally rewarding and sustainable.
If you want to be a part of this fun,
energetic, and effective day, please email VTGLBTConferece@yahoo.com
or call Craig at 802-579-5056. Thanks!