by Joe Courter
We tried back in August entertaining the notion of slowly reopening the Civic Media Center as a public space, but then Delta showed up and we went back into our shell, with just Free Grocery Store, Books for Prisoners, bi-weekly volunteer meetings and occasional other meetings.
But recently the collections committee has resumed meeting, and of course we had our anniversary program Oct. 18 with an intentionally small in-person audience of volunteers for Sandra Parks and the “Stetson Kennedy, A Life of Purpose” program. That was streamed on Zoom and Facebook, and can still be seen on the CMC Facebook page.
Well, here we go again. Saturday, Dec. 4, and the following two Saturdays from 1 to 5 we will be open to the public, where people can come say hi, browse the collection, check out books and perhaps have an informal celebration of coming out (or at least approaching) the other side of Covid. We will strongly request masks and reasonable distancing to be practiced, but the space is clean and ready. Tamal will be open next door for food; they are trying to get back going again, too.
Our volunteers, many of whom have never been around an active and open CMC, are also itching to open, and they will be maintaining some sort of hours on Wednesdays to be determined in the near future.
Year end support for the 501(c)3 CMC would be more than welcome; it is needed. There was a great streak of generosity early in the shut down when those stimulus checks went out, and actually got us ahead, but now things have slowed down donation wise, and we need to start doing the work needed to pay our coordinator, and our rent and utilities. Checks and snail mail work, sent to the Civic Media Center, 433 S. Main St., Gainesville, FL 32601, or at Paypal.me/CMC4ever, or on Venmo@CMC4ever. Thank you to all who have ever supported the CMC, and let’s look forward to 2022.