Carbondale, IL (November 5, 2022) Several members of CORAL took a road trip to join Rainbow Café’s 22nd Annual Gala. Rainbow Café was an idea that began in the basement of one of their retired members twenty-two years ago only to become one of the largest and only LGBTQ community centers in the southern part of Illinois. From that humble beginning, they now have seven different programs running as well as harm reduction and testing facilities. At the event, they also announced that they would be starting a new scholarship fund in 2023 that would be awarded each year at this event.
Among the night’s activities that included dinner and a silent auction, several members of the organization took to the podium to explain their accomplishments for the year as well make announcements for the upcoming goals. The keynote speaker was Timothy Jackson, Director of Government Relations for AIDS Foundation Chicago who encouraged the attendees on how to keep the movement going and the featured speaker was Scott Fletcher, Director of The Community Action Place, who provided a glimpse of the work being done in the area for promoting harm reduction and ending the stigma associated with it.
CORAL was glad to be there to show their support of the Rainbow Café as well as to strengthen our bond with them moving forward. We look to working with them into the future.