IT’S ALMOST TIME!!! The GAY COMMUNITY CENTER OF RICHMOND’S 12,000 square foot DIVERSITY EVENT AND BINGO HALL is scheduled to open in August 2007. We are well on our way on the reconstruction phase of the event hall and it is going to be a great space. Future plans for the community center include this event hall with a full kitchen, meeting rooms of various sizes, a LGBT Coffeehouse, and various bingo games. There is ample parking with a 120 space well lit parking lot, a smaller parking lot and on street parking.


We were scheduled to open July 1, 2007. However, we encountered a minor delay with the renovation of the Diversity Bingo/Event Hall. After architectural and plumbing plans for the kitchen and bathrooms were submitted and approved, and after the work was done according to those plans, the City informed us of new regulations that required us to install a handicapped unisex restroom in addition to the large existing handicapped restrooms for men and women. This set us back a few weeks, but the revised plans were approved and the plumbing work was completed and passed inspection. We are still hoping to have our Certificate of Occupancy by the first of July, but we pushed our bingo game opening date back to August 2, to give us sufficient time to advertise the bingo grand opening.


ALSO UNDER CONSTRUCTION is the website, www.DiversityThrift.org. We have been out of commission for a while but look for us to be back on line in MAY. We have a volunteer who is working on revamping our site and getting everything back up! MANY THANKS TO WREN!!! Also thank you Eugene for maintaining the website in the past.


We are open to ideas for the community center and the website and have a number of volunteer opportunities related to getting both of them off to a great start (SEE BELOW) … Call us at 353-8890 or email Cindy about volunteering at VolunteerDThrift@aol.com.


HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

This Memorial Day, I hope that we all can pause and be thankful for the sacrifices of all the Military Personnel that have served throughout the years. These men and women have served to ensure that we all keep the rights guaranteed by the constitution, and, hopefully, soon all LGBT persons will enjoy the full rights and responsibilities in all areas of life.


DIVERSITY THRIFT NEWS

25¢ SALE

This weekend all BLUE TAG ITEMS are only a quarter. This weekend, the color of savings is BLUE. Come see the super values, and get some great deals! I know it’s supposed to be a gorgeous weekend, but come by and see us anyway. Lots of 25¢ books (in bins located by the kitchenwares) also on sale.



CHAIR SALE

We are overstocked on chairs. We are having a chair sale. All chairs priced above $5 are now only $5 for or 3 for $12. Any chair priced $5 or below is only $1. EXCEPTIONS are marked that they are NOT ON SALE.


NOW HIRING

We are currently accepting applications for a part-time cashier. Hours will be Wednesday and Thursday 12 pm – 6 pm and Friday and Sunday 9:30 am – 6 pm. Entry level hiring rate is $8/hr. Applications can be obtained and submitted during operational hours (including office hours on Monday and Tuesday. If you have questions, contact the store manager, Beverly Corp, at 353-8890 Monday – Friday 10 am – 5 pm.


DONATIONS NEEDED
IT’S TIME FOR SPRING CLEANING!!!! If you have items that you want to donate, now is a good time to call because we can usually pick up within 2 days right now. We pick up donations every day between the hours of 10 and 5 except for Monday.

We accept donations of most items, and pick up larger furniture and other large items within the local Metro Richmond area. We pick up smaller, miscellaneous items along with the larger items. Call the store at 353-8890 to schedule pickups. You can drop other donations off when you check out our fabulous store.

We need the following large item: Work carts for warehouse receiving area ($200 each). These work carts make it easier for donor to get their donations into the building and then make it easier and faster to get these treasures out on the floor.


Thank you all for the wonderful donations that you have made in the past. We could not exist without you! We still have a lot of work to do to make the community center a fully operational reality! We hope that you will continue to support us as we strive to make this dream a reality in Richmond.


WE REALLY NEED BAGS. Please donate your used CLEAN AND DRY shopping bags to Diversity Thrift. Recycling used bags, instead of buying new ones, is one small way to keep our expenses down and enable us donate more money back to the community. We also need recycled newspapers to use to wrap fragile purchases. We appreciate donations of clean, dry plastic and paper bags and newspapers; please donate bags that you wouldn’t mind having your own clothing purchases packed in.

IT’S ALMOST TIME!!! The GAY COMMUNITY CENTER OF RICHMOND’S 12,000 square foot DIVERSITY EVENT AND BINGO HALL is scheduled to open on Sunday, July 1st. We are well on our way on the reconstruction phase of the event hall and it is going to be a great space. Future plans for the community center include this event hall with a full kitchen, meeting rooms of various sizes, a LGBT Coffeehouse, and various bingo games. There is ample parking with a 120 space well lit parking lot, a smaller parking lot and on street parking.

ALSO UNDER CONSTRUCTION is the website, www.DiversityThrift.org. We have been out of commission for a while but look for us to be back on line in MAY. We have a volunteer who is working on revamping our site and getting everything back up! MANY THANKS TO WREN!!! Also thank you Eugene for maintaining the website in the past.

We are open to ideas for the community center and the website and have a number of volunteer opportunities related to getting both of them off to a great start (SEE BELOW) … Call us at 353-8890 or email Cindy about volunteering at VolunteerDThrift@aol.com.


There was a town hall meeting to discuss what the community wants to see happen in the community center. We had an enthusiastic crowd of approximately 50 people. We had representatives from a number of community organizations and some individuals that wanted to express their opinions… We were very pleased with the response and the variety of opinions expressed.


The ideas for the space ranged from educational forums, PRIDE events, visual and performing arts projects, game nights, potlucks, how-to classes, supports groups, family camp-in nights and many, many more. There were a lot of people that are ready to step up from the day we open to make many of these events an immediate reality. Stay tuned to the newsletter (and soon to the website) for updates on what’s happening at the Gay Community Center of Richmond.


We will be having another town hall meeting in several months and we hope to have even more people attending. The date will be posted as soon as it is announced!


Volunteer Opportunities!!!

We need YOUR help!!!

We now have evening hours available for volunteers. Volunteers can now help with shelving general merchandise or books and processing clothing 4 evenings a week; Monday through Thursday, we are now open for volunteering from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm as well as our regular hours of 10 am – 6 pm daily. Be the first to see the new treasures arriving daily! Get first choice after they’ve been priced by regular staff!


CAN YOU VOLUNTEER 8 HOURS OR MORE IN 2007? Diversity Thrift is seeking volunteers who can commit to volunteering at least 8 hours this year. Of course, we’d love to have you come out more often, perhaps 8 hours every 1st Saturday or the month, or 4 hours every 2nd Monday, etc... We are very flexible and rely on volunteers to help keep our overhead down so more money is available to work on the Community Center and to give to the groups we support. This is an important community activity. Please remember us….we are here to serve the community and you can join the effort. We rely on your assistance. Come by and get a tour of the building and then decide if you can help us out.


WE ARE WELL ON THE WAY IN RENOVATING THE SECOND PART OF THE BUILDING – THE EVENT HALL WILL BE OPENING JULY 1, 2007 AND WE WILL HAVE A WONDERFUL SPACE FOR COMMUNITY EVENTS. If you want a tour, come by and ask for Cindy.


THANK YOU TO ALL VOLUNTEERS WHO COME OUT AND HELP. WE HAVE A WONDERFUL OF CADRE OF VOLUNTEERS WHO HELP WITH BINGO, THE BOOK ROOM, DATA ENTRY AND LANDSCAPING/GENERAL MAINTENANCE. THANK YOU SO MUCH! EACH OF YOU IS A MAJOR PART OF OUR SUCCESS!

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Cindy Bray, Volunteer Coordinator at 353-8890 or email VolunteerDThrift@aol.com. Here are a few of our current opportunities:


**********NEW VOLUNTEER NEEDS**********

• EXTERIOR PAINTING – We want to spiff up the exterior of the building before the big grand opening of the event hall. We need volunteers to scrape some areas of peeling paint and to do some outside painting. We want our building for the community center to look as FABULOUS as our community.
• BACKUP BINGO CALLER - Diversity Bingo is in need of a volunteer backup caller for our Thursday night and Saturday morning bingo games. Training provided. Email DiversityThrift@aol.com if interested.

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• BINGO! – Thursday nights 5:30 pm – 10:15 pm or Saturday mornings 10 am – 2:15 pm at the Jamaica Club on Route 1 about 2 miles north of Virginia Center Commons (towards Ashland). No experience needed! Just a willingness to help! GREAT EXERCISE!!! Walk around the Bingo Hall while selling instant tickets. FREE MEAL during each session. The food is GREAT!
• RECEIVING DONATIONS and STOCKING SHELVES –Help receive donations and get the new items on the shelves any day of the week! We especially need help on weekdays. Work with our employees, be one of the first to see new items going on the shelves. Something new everyday!!! GET FIRST CHOICE ON ITEMS GOING OUT ON SHELVES!!! GREAT WAY TO FIND TREASURES!
• PROCESSING CLOTHING - Sort clothing donations into categories, tag and get them out on the racks.
• BOOK ROOM – Do you love books??? Are you organized and a team player? We have several wonderful volunteers in the book room, but they could use some help, just a couple hours, a couple days a week, to help straighten and stock the shelves in the bookroom. Be one of the first to see the books coming in when you are stocking…, get first pick after the volunteer bookroom supervisor sorts and prices specialty items.
• MUSIC ROOM – Do you love all kinds of music? Do you like to organize music into categories and alphabetize? Help needed to keep the music room neat and organized! Work with great people! It would be great if you were available for a couple of hours on Monday and/or Tuesday, but any day is great!
• DATA ENTRY – We need one or two people to enter data into several databases on a regular basis to help us maintain our records.
• Electronics RoomVolunteer(s) needed. We need several volunteers to help in the electronics department, testing computers, TVs, stereos, turntables, etc… when they come in and making sure they are in salable condition. Contact Cindy at 353-8890 if you have experience working with electronics and are interested in volunteering.
  

If you are interested in any of these opportunities or have an idea of a different way you can help us, please contact Cindy at 350-0878 or email DTNewsletter@aol.com.