The wonderful weather continued today as we traveled to Brooklyn to work with the Brooklyn Community Pride Center (BCPC) on St. Patrick's Day. We were greeted by Sarah Hartzell, the program director, and learned a little more about the history and work that the center is involved with. Brooklyn was the last borough to receive a Center in 2008. Although the center was only founded a few years ago, you would never know based on the number and quality of services and programs they offer. The BCPC currently offers programs focused on Youth and Elders, Arts and Cultural Programming and Peer led support groups in addition to many others. They offer a safe space for programs to be run through, offer referral services and also have health and wellness resources such as free HIV testing. We learned about their partnerships with local schools and the programming and education they implement there. After having a chance to ask all of our questions and become acquainted with the center, we were eager to get to work.
Our team split up in order to get the most accomplished during our first day with the Brooklyn Community Pride Center. Next month, the BCPC is hosting their annual gala, which honors prominent members of the LGBTQ community and also serves as one of their major fundraisers for the year. In order to promote this event, five of us immersed ourselves in the beautiful neighborhood surrounding the center and posted flyers for several hours. We conversed with local businesses to spread the word and distributed flyers and posted in business windows. While half of us were busy walking the streets, the rest of the team rolled up their sleeves and got to work right in the BCPC. Some people worked cleaned out and organized storage space which resulted in several boxes of items that were then donated to a local Goodwill store. Others helped with administrative work by organizing files and then researching local donors for the auction at the annual gala. We then all ended our day with the BCPC together by reorganizing the center's extensive and diverse library of LGBTQ works.
Today we did not directly see or interact with the community we were serving which was quite different from yesterday's experience, it was still just as fulfilling. It was nice to work with an organization that provides so many different services and programs for this community and know that our time could help potentially provide funding for the center or just make their every day operations a little easier. After our time with the BCPC we decided to take advantage of the center's location and take a short detour home to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. We took pictures for as long as we could until the wind scared us off. Our bonds as a group are only getting stronger every day and its hard to believe the week is already halfway over. I know the rest of our trip will be just as educational and rewarding as these past couple days have been and we will have these memories for the rest of our lives.
Nicole Haggerty
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