 Hi, welcome to the All Things LGBTQ Interview Show where we interview LGBTQ guests who are making important contributions to our communities. All Things LGBTQ is taped at Orca Media in Montpelier, Vermont, which we recognize as being unceded indigenous land. Thanks for joining us and enjoy the show. As I've already shared with today's guest, I can't believe that it's already been a year since Pride and Bloom happened in Bethel. And they had such a good time that this year they're coming back for Carnival. So please welcome back to All Things LGBTQ Leonard Meek. Welcome. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you very much. Nice to be here. I was so excited to see that Bethel was doing a Pride Festival this year. But I've got to say, I was also surprised that in the month of June alone, there are 12 Pride festivals happening throughout Vermont, which is amazing. So, okay, Leonard, if I'm only going to go to one event, why should it be Carnival? And I understand that you're starting off on Thursday, June 22nd with a gay trivia contest. Yes, we are. So why should it be Carnival? Why not? Why not? Well, you know, we're here in this small town. We're really, it's a really good support of community. The interesting thing about us doing this is that we have not just queer people working on this carnival. It's a whole mish-mash of people working on this carnival. So it's about community, inclusivity, equality for everybody, you know, and we try to gear a lot of the events, well, not a lot, but some of the events towards queer youth. The reason for that is one of the things I've always noticed is that when Pride celebrations happen, they happen for 18 and older. That's true. That's very true. And in this town, we want it to happen for everybody, everybody, queer, queer supportive. If you're not queer supportive, come anyway. Get supportive. We'll support you back. That's what this is about. And it's about just having safe, inclusive, fun. So I really like that there's a focus on youth and multi-generational and a full community involvement. Yeah. Or my question is if you don't do that, it doesn't work. For me, my understanding is it doesn't work. You cannot want people to just let people be if they don't interact with each other. So our goal is to get them all together and interact and just be, just be whatever level that is for you. Just be. But be that enjoy and peace and support and understanding. And you don't have to agree, but understand. Understand each other. Understand that this is this person's life and this is the other person's life and just enjoy what they're bringing to the world. That's it. And that's how you truly build community and break down barriers and challenge all of that misinformation that is prevalent right now. Precisely. So is gay trivia going to ask some questions about, or do you know what the questions are? I don't know what the questions are, but our tagline is anyone can play, but it's going to be gay. So everything centers around queer history, everything. History, queer, queer past, present and future and fantasy. So it all centers around that. And it's so much fun. Oh, I can imagine because on each episode of All Things LGBTQ, we have been adding a trivia question because there's so much of our history that we don't know because it had never been shared with us. Yeah. This is wonderful. It's everything from they get named the flat, named the different gay flags and the pride flags, all of that, you know, and some people can get them. Some people can't. Half of them, more than half of them, I don't know. You know, I'm from the old school, one gay flag. It's going to be a learning experience. There was a lot of, you know, and everything. You know, they gave trivia, gay history and it covers the spectrum of like gay life and it's wonderful. You know, it's wonderful. It's fun. It's learning and it brings the community together. And it also, there's a lot of straight people that know more than we know about gay history. And this is from 7 to 9 p.m. at babes at babes. Yes, it is. So I may finally get that, that Chicago dog. Yes, absolutely. As well, that and they're good. So then on Friday, it's a mass queer age fall. Oh, definitely tell me about this. Well, this is a celebration of really the celebration of everybody. But I gear in my mind for me, I gear more towards the youth. I gear towards, as we discussed a little earlier, those people who were ostracized for whatever reason from their problems, because they weren't allowed to be themselves. So if you want to come in full regalia and. Something flowing and some theft. And this year you want to wear a mask and feathers. You can wear it all because it's a masquerade. So we want you to come and all we're going to have a mass making station just in case there's going to be a backdrop of a masquerade. There's going to be it's going to be food, everything. We have, you know, all you have to do is show up. There's going to be music, food, good times. Again, safe, fun environment, queer, non queer, whatever you whatever you consider yourself, come come dressed, come as a masquerade. I don't. And if that dress is just an eye patch, come dressed, put some feathers on that patch and just come to enjoy. Come to enjoy to communicate and to relax and to just mingle and to party with you. And I and we want the youth to be there. Like I said before, you know, I'm really interested in making sure that gay youth are recognized in pride. They're often left out of the celebrations and the celebrations are really geared towards, you know, for lack of better things to say, 18 and above, you know, the parties happen at night. They happen in bars. They happen. This is alcohol free, you know. So the party's happening for all ages. So parents can come with their kids who are. Gender, whatever, whatever you consider yourself, parents can come bring the whole family, just come, just come and celebrate with us. That's it. It's a celebration of pride in general and everybody should have pride. Whether you consider yourself gay, straight, trans, this or that. Everybody deserves to have pride and support. And that's what this is for. And this is at the White Church, the White Church in Bethel on Church Street in Bethel from six until eight p.m. There will be flags outside. Yes. And it may go a little longer. There will be flags hanging outside. You will know where to go. You will see the flags flipping in the wind, hopefully, and you will know where to go. There will be people there to guide you. There'll be, you know, everyone will be there hoping for more, the more the merrier. And then on Saturday. Starting at noon, there is a family meeting, a family meeting. That's this is really not my purview at all, but it's something we always do. We have the family meeting is really they try to gear towards queer and queer youth and queer people in general. A safe space to talk, a safe space to talk about what you what you're feeling, what's happening to you, what you're feeling about what's going on in the world today, what you're feeling about what's happening in your little town or your home, it's a safe space. Understand that this meeting is not just happening just for pride. It happens regularly. So if you're interested, you want to reach out to the EIC, the Equity and Inclusion Committee and you can find our website in Bethel and you just want to go there and say, hey, I want to show up and you can just show up. You know, they're putting an inclusion committee is a committee of the town of Bethel, the town of Bethel. Well, anybody can be on this committee. You don't have to be from Bethel, but it's founded in Bethel. It's sponsored in Bethel. We are officially the Select Board has officially it's official. So we do report to the Select Board and let them know what's going on and bring them in. They're the ones who also hosting the, like I told you, the book club. So if you want to join the book club, you can call, you can register. You they'll give you a free book. You can read it and join in things like that. As a former Select Board member, it's always good to know what's happening in your backyard. Yes, it is. And we want to, you know, we want them included in gay pride and everything. You know, we want them included. So and then starting at one o'clock is the pride picnic at the recreation center. Yeah, this is this is this is just about some outdoor, some outdoor prideful fun. We're going to supply everything from a bounce gym to food to music. They're going there's a skateboard area for skateboarding. There is a jungle gym over there. We're going to have I'm trying to get somebody to do face painting. We're going to I'm going to, you know, put little games out hula hoops and this and that just come just to just to romp around, bring your blankets, sit out on the grass, enjoy. We're asking people if you want to bring we can we're going to do a potluck too. So local people can bring something to share food to share. Again, all of these events are about pride, safety, inclusion, equality and peacefulness, all of them. And and then there's the event that just. Caught my eye. Gee, the parasol promenade. Yes, or I OK, describe it. The parasol promenade, my vision. We've never done this before. My vision is that you'll see a parade on a parade of people casually walking with a multicolor umbrellas celebrating their pride and who they are. Talking, walking, laughing just for about 30 to 40 minutes. Just walking through the streets of Bethel, downtown Bethel and just holding up your umbrellas just to say we're queer, we're straight, we're whatever here we are, we're not going anywhere. We love being here. The world is going to love us. The world does love us. They just don't know it yet. And that's that, you know, that's that. It's just like that. I just envision just like when you look from the top of the sky, you just see these beautiful colored parasols walking, this moving, this floating down the sidewalk and floating around Bethel and people going from the sidelines. That's where we're going to give you the opportunity to appreciate exactly how fabulous we are. And we also give them the opportunity to say, hey, can I join you? Come on, get out of the umbrella. You know, seven o'clock, a mochi nightmare. Yes, it's going to be and seeing the drag show. Yes, drag shows are important. They always have been and they always will be. And given what's going on in this country, drag performers need to know that we all are there for them, that we understand what they're doing. It is one of the best forms of comedy I've ever, ever witnessed. And these people always bear their all when they perform. They always have a message. They always have something fun to give you. And they want you just to be and they want you just to enjoy life. You know, and that's what they that's every drag show I've ever been. I've left on a higher note and I've been to several. You know, and I've left on a higher note of joy and for lack of any sort of joy, love, peace, you know, and wrapping everybody up in your arms. It's just about good fun, you know, heartfelt fun. They're not, you know, and how could we not have a drag show? Exactly. OK, where is the venue for the drag show? The White Church. Oh. And then following that is the dance party starting at 10. It's going to fold. It's going to slide right into the dance party right there. So you come to one place and you get it all. And I noticed on the poster it said tickets were available at door. You did not order them online in advance. Well, the thing that the thing is we did that last year and it limited what we could do. It limited the amount of people. It was I mean, we had we sold out in weeks and like we put it out there in like two and a half weeks we were sold out. So people had the waiting list of the other. Now we move to the White Church that has a larger capacity. So we can have more people there. And we figure that's not sell tickets. Just come on in. We're asking that the minimum donation is $15, but we're asking you to give more than that if you can. If not, $15 is welcome. And again, all of the ticket sale proceeds go to the performers. We get none of it. We don't use any for anything else, except for them. It's how we want to do. We want them. We want you to come to support them so they can get paid. Well, exactly. And I've got to say that the performers probably appreciate the support you're giving them. OK, the money is going to the performers. And before we started taping, you were sharing that you haven't done traditional fundraising, necessarily to put the carnival together. You have looked for community donations for in addition to doing a fundraising event. Could you talk a little bit about how that's happened? Well, the whole initially, even last year, the whole idea of the Pride Fest for me was to rally the community together. So what better way to do that than to seek community support from local organizations? And those local organizations came through. They came through. They donated what they could. They did not hesitate. They said, here, here, here, this year, we actually did basket bingo. Local fundraise, a raffle fundraiser for it. And we wanted to involve and we wanted to keep it local and do it locally and see all of the businesses contributed, even outside of Bethel, the Woodstock Inn contributed, you know, all of them contributed some kind of gift so that we could raffle off. And that's what it's about. This is not, you know, this is just happening in Bethel, but the surrounding surrounding communities are also welcomed here. So Bethel may be small, but we have a big open heart and a big open space come and join us, you know, want them here. You know, we want everybody to come and join that. And that's an answer to your other question. That's why you should come to Carnival. Now, you had also made a reference to, you know, that there is a book group that's meeting and the family meetings continue throughout the year. You know, if if I were interested in participating in those events, I would see them listed on the diversity and inclusion. Website Bethel. EIC, so it's Bethel's Equity and Inclusion Committee. OK, and you'll see you'll see it. Just make sure it's Bethel, Vermont, not Bethel, Connecticut, because that comes up sometimes when you do that. Give me a second. Unfortunately, I don't go on the website as often because I'm always at the meetings. So no, you you can send me the I'll send you and they will have a display during the interview. Perfect, perfect. Oh, yeah, I will do that. Yeah, because the EIC Committee is instrumental in really moving this town forward. You know, I've, you know, I've been talking about doing something for pride for years and when Owen got here from Babes, we were talking about it. And then finally, we just started doing it. And this is our second annual and we hope to have our 50th annual someday. So we're going to be working on this and doing this every year. And we hope they get bigger and bigger and bigger and more people flock want to flock to Bethel, to witness, to be a part of, to support, to volunteer, all of it. I'll you had mentioned prior to our starting taping that you were working on trying to establish a BIPOC committee. Yes, or a BIPOC group that would be a BIPOC affinity group. Yes, we are. We had one meeting. It was sparsely attended. So we bought, we did some. We went to school. Dana, who's also in data depth, was also working with me on this. Went to went and did some things in the school. So she's sort of gathering more of the youth because that's what we really want. We want young people to know that they have a place to go here. And on all sides, you know, we want you to know that you have a place. And I think people get the wrong idea when you talk about BIPOC affinity and all of that. This is not a place to gripe into the place of positivity. Of growth and positivity of if you're going through something, how do you turn that into something positive and big for you, yourself and the world? And that's what it's about. And that's what we put forth in these groups. You know, every, you know, everything that you do, you have, you have, you have everything that happens to you, that you do, you have an opportunity to go one way or the other. You know, one way can be really positive and one way can be detrimental to you because you wallow in that negativity or you wallow in the meanness of it. Take that meanness and turn it around. What what did you learn from that? Move forward with that, you know? So that's where those groups are for me when I help run those groups. So it's how how can Bethel become your home and a home that you want to come back to and where you want to stay? And with that, I need to say thank you for spending this time with us. Thank you. Good, good luck with Carnival. Thank you. And I'm still thinking I at least now need to sneak down and take pictures of the promenade. Oh, yeah, please do. I'm going I'm going tonight over there. We're going to we're getting I'm going over there in a little while to look at the space so we can formal formalize how we're decorating it and all that and get the parasol painting station set up and stuff like that. So, yeah. OK, so starting Thursday, June 22nd. Yes. Is your destination of choice? Drive through Park. Come on in June 22nd, 23rd and 24th. And don't drive through. Make this your destination. You know, so. All right. Thank you so much, Keith. Hi, everybody on LGBTQ. All that's LGBTQ. We'd like to want to welcome Shilanda Jo-Jane, our show. Hello, everyone. Yeah, how are you doing? Well, we hope everybody's doing the sun's out today, which is a small miracle. Shilanda is assistant chest manager at the Malkilir Senior Activity Center. She does a lot of fabulous cooking and organizing cooking and wonderful meals all the time. So we'd like to thank you for that, Shilanda. That's really a gift. You're welcome. So I heard from talking to you a little earlier that you are from originally from South Carolina. You went to school in North Carolina. And how did you end up in lovely Vermont? Well, I ended up in Vermont because I always wanted to travel and be able to experience different places with culinary. One of the reasons why I got in this field is because you could always travel and somebody's always going to need to eat someplace. So therefore, I'm sure that that was the best way that we'd be able to do those two things that I love. So I ended up in Vermont through a friend who I had previously worked in Alaska with. And he invited me up to Vermont to work up here. And I had heard lots of good things about farm to table and all this wonderful culinary nuance that was going on. And I thought that, hey, maybe I'd like to go and experience that and see what that was all about. So how long have you been here now? I think I've been here almost 10 years now. How long have you been working at the Senior Center? I think I'm going on three years now. I know when you first started, I said, this woman is from the South because she really could cook. I had spent 17 years in New Orleans. And I just miss that cooking so much. I miss the food. But you've been missing taste of it in the end. So what do you do? What's your day like? Or when you're here and you're planning meals, do you plan out for a week? Or what do you do? Typically, I have to plan a month in advance, which I just got through doing meals menu today because we want to make sure that we're able to set it up to dietitians that collaborate with us and make sure that we're meeting the nutritional guidelines for our program so that we can receive proper funding. And so basically, once I get in to work on a daily basis, we're going by the menu that I've already turned in and been approved. And so we might make a few adjustments to it. Before the most part, we try to follow that menu. And so we also adjust just by donations that we are given through community harvest, food bank, or any other donations that we receive just from local people. And what is it like, special dietary? Is that how to cut meat with the dietary requirements, like how much vegetable, how much protein, all of that? So is that hard to work out? Well, it is sometimes, I think, the most difficult one to manage sometimes can be diabetic, can be diabetic or gluten-free, because we have certain grain requirements. And so because of those grain requirements, you have to figure out more grains that are less likely to have as much starch so that it's more accessible for the diabetic. So grains like quinoa or starches like sweet potatoes, things of that nature where it has a deep or less starch content or more complex content so that it's broken down a little bit differently in the body than what would normally be. So not only do you have to do just for what is healthy by standards, but also for antibiotics, too. That's interesting. I think that you also do meals on meals or set another project. So we do meals on meals is what our program is. And we provide meals for people who are over the age of 65 that can no longer either themselves be able to cook or have less mobility and can't get out and go and get food and be able to cook the food that they need for nutritional purposes. And so by that way, we are able to deliver a meal to them and make sure that they're getting that nutritional value of what they need on a daily basis. And you have volunteers that drive people, that drive the food around to different things. Our whole program is pretty much volunteer-based. We are volunteer-based through our drivers, through our kitchen workers, through our farm. We have a farm in which the parks and recs run and have volunteers bring donations from the farm to us in order for us to process and be able to use in our meals. So you have a lot of responsibility there because the food for meals for wheels is often different than the food that you do for Tuesdays and Fridays that people come from. They're totally different, right? Yeah, right. But we've recently dismantled Curve Five because it was a part of a program that was through COVID. So now that we've dismantled that, we now have community meals on Thursdays in which people can come from 12 to 1 and be able to have an in-person meal with us. I know that. I really miss that. I went to my first one yesterday, as a matter of fact. And it's really nice to see some faces I haven't seen since the pandemic started. So that was really nice. And I think people really miss getting together. It is definitely more than just the meal. As it says, we have that social aspect that we deliver when we go and we check on our clientele and make sure that they're doing OK and just have conversation with them and just tell them what's going out in the world and things of that nature. So it's great. Yeah, the drivers really tend to bond with our clientele. And they love going and seeing about them and having those moments with them. And it might be the only person they see during the day at all. That is correct. Yeah. So it's a great service. And we're glad you came. Do you work in the rest of the year? Do you start it at the center or? When I first came to Stowe, I was in the resort world. And so one of the first reports that I was working at was Stowe's Lake. And so I worked there for about a year. And then I also worked at Trap Family Lodge for about three years. So never made it to Stowe Mountain, but they were trying to get me. I know a lot of good friends there, though. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for doing this and for being part of the community and helping. And it is really an incredible service. And it's like one that's behind the scenes that you don't get enough credit for. And it's a really valuable service. And I know seniors who just wait for their driver to come and just pay attention and listen even for five minutes or two minutes. So it's a great service. And so one last question is, when you decide that you have to be, you have to be very two-like chicken. You know. The variety that I try to give when I am making my mean use is so that people don't get bored. Plus also being able to offer favorites, like Shepherd's Pie or either Yankee Pot Roast is one of those favorites that we love to do here. And macaroni and cheese. So definitely try to get those favorites in there. But then we'd like to offer things that somebody might not have ever tried before, like for soup, you know, or either having, you know, making sure that we're showing support in what's going on around the world, you know. Yeah. And a little spice that once in a while, it might be a little different. Yes, definitely so. Yeah. So thank you so much for what you do. Thank you for being on the show. And I'm going to say goodbye. So I'll see you in the driveway. All right. That sounds great. Thank you. Take care. All right. Bye-bye. Thank you for joining us. And until next time, remember, resist.