By Sophia Buckley-Clement
THE RUTLAND HERALD
Lights, music and glittering gowns covered the Franklin Conference Center on Friday night during a drag performance fundraiser for a new LGBTQ+ resource hub soon to be settled in Rutland.
Rutland County Pride is a nonprofit organization aimed at serving the needs of the local LGBTQ+ and allied communities and providing a safe, centralized space for education, resources and empowerment.
Since establishing the nonprofit in July, founder Todd Walker and organization partners William Mills and Timothy “TJ” Wierzbicki II have held three performances to raise money for a physical pride center, set to be located within the Howe Center in Rutland.
“(This center) would be a great place for outreach,” Wierzbicki said. “A place to go to get some counseling, help process things, (address) homeless prevention. We’ll be doing things like STD awareness and testing.”
Having moved to the Rutland area from California a year and a half ago, Walker said the idea for the project first sparked after he struggled to find local LGBTQ+ resources.
“Whenever I move to a new area, one of the first things I do is I look for an LGBTQ center where I can find a queer-friendly doctor or mechanic or housekeeper,” Walker said. “I started searching for one online (in Rutland) and the only thing that would come up was (in) Burlington.”
According to Walker and his fellow Rutland County Pride partners, the outcry from the community has proved the need for a center like they’re hoping to provide.
“I’ve talked to people that have said they had been waiting for somebody to do this,” Walker said. “They’ve said, ‘I wish this was around when I was younger and trying to come out. It would have made things so much easier just knowing that there were other people out there.’”
The organization also unveiled a new logo during Friday’s performance, sharing a distinct theme of “moving forward,” according to Walker.
“When I saw (the logo), the first thing I thought of was, ‘That is so Rutland.’ If you look at the ‘I Heart Rutland’ signs, it kind of lends itself to that idea,” Walker said.
Alongside the lively performances Friday’s fundraiser event provided, a powerful performance on the struggles of addiction and a message from Wierzbicki — who also performs as drag queen Amy Celestial — stressed that the Rutland County Pride Center will be “here for everybody and everyone.”
With the group’s Facebook page accumulating some 455 members since July, Walker said that volunteers and supporters have been steadily coming out of the woodwork to involve themselves in the project.
And having raised a total of roughly $4,000 from the drag fundraisers alone — half of their $8,000 opening goal — the reality of a brick-and-mortar pride center is drawing nearer.
“The grand vision of the pride center is just to be a holistic one-stop shop where, if we cannot provide a service, we can put you in touch with someone or the organization that can provide the service,” Mills said.
Though the Rutland County Pride Center does not have a set opening date yet, Walker and all those involved are eager to continue their efforts and generate more interest in the project.
“There’s a big community here. We just didn’t know it existed — nobody else realized that it existed,” Walker said. “Now they’ll have a place that feels like it’s home.”
The next fundraiser event, “Fright Fest,” will be held at 8 p.m. on Oct. 28 at Franklin Conference Center at the Howe Center. Those interested in learning more about the organization, donation and the event can visit rcpride.org online.
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