BE HERE! BE YOU! A SKATING AND DANCING PARTY TO BENEFIT THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY
Joy Skate Productions welcomes YOU to a celebratory fun-raiser with skating and dancing. Be Here! Be YOU! is a charitable event supporting the LGBTQ+ community, and will be held at The Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, MA. General Admission is $20, Students $10 (with high school or college ID) and includes parking, DJ, hot chocolate, rental skates, and a skating session. Other Club amenities include cash bar, café and gender-neutral restrooms are available.
Host, Randy Gardner
Randy Gardner is a World and National Champion and an Olympic Pairs Figure Skater. His illustrious life has been captured in the documentary Go Figure: The Randy Gardner Story. Randy’s journey to overcome the obstacles life has thrown at him and rise to the top of his sport is truly compelling. The speaking program that he has created inspires participants to never give up no matter the immediate circumstances of life. Randy knows firsthand that negative situations can be turned into positive triumphs by reframing and adapting oneself. Using the tools that got him through the many obstacles and challenges of his life, he speaks to and educates his own and future generations on how to create a powerful career and personal life.
Guest of Honor, Julie Thompson, PA-C
Julie joined Fenway Health in 2010, and was named the Medical Director of the Trans Health Program in 2016. She is a primary care clinician leader who specializes in LGBTQIA+ health, high-resolution anoscopy, and is an HIV Specialist through the American Academy of HIV Medicine. As the Medical Director of the Trans Health, Julie works to guide Fenway’s multidisciplinary team approach to provide high-quality, informed care to the trans and gender diverse communities. She leads on-going education to support Fenway’s medical providers, as well as works interdepartmentally to ensure Fenway is a welcome space for all patients and staff, regardless of how they identify. Julie is faculty at the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, providing trainings to health centers nationally and internationally. She is also established as core faculty on TransECHO and TransLINE, both of which are gender affirming medical consultative services for health care providers across the country. In April 2022 she was appointed to serve on the Board of Directors for the United States Professional Association of Transgender Health (USPATH).
Benefitting Organization, Fenway Health
Since 1971, Fenway Health has been working to make life healthier for the people in our neighborhood, the LGBTQIA+ community, people living with HIV/AIDS and the broader population. Fenway was founded in 1971 as part of the free clinic movement by students who believed that “health care should be a right, not a privilege.”
In its early days, Fenway was a drop-in clinic providing free blood pressure checks and STD screenings. Over the years, Fenway obtained permanent space and incorporated as a freestanding health center with a staff of one volunteer doctor, one nurse and one intake worker. Today, Fenway Health has a budget of more than $131 million, a staff of more than 700 and a patient population of nearly 40,000.
Fenway Health is a Federally Qualified Community Health Center.
Fenway Health advocates for and delivers innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education. We center LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC individuals, and other underserved communities to enable our local, national, and global neighbors to flourish.
In 2001, Fenway launched The Fenway Institute, an interdisciplinary center for research, training, education and policy development focusing on national and international health issues, especially related to LGBTQIA+ communities.
In 2009, Fenway moved into the Ansin Building, the largest LGBTQIA+ health care, research and education facility in the world, and an anchor institution in Boston’s thriving Fenway neighborhood.
In 2010, Fenway welcomed the Sidney Borum, Jr. Health Center into the Fenway family. The Borum serves teens and young adults ages 12-29, and is a safe place for at-risk youth, including LGBTQIA+ young people, homeless teens and young adults, those struggling with substance abuse, involved with gangs or doing sex work.
In 2013, the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts also became a part of Fenway Health. AIDS Action serves people living with HIV/AIDS and populations at risk of infection, and leads the state’s Getting To Zero Coalition, which seeks to reduce the number of HIV infections to zero. It also operates a needle exchange that serves as an entry point to healthcare services for active substance users.
Live Performance by Mizery McRae
Mizery McRae is one of Boston’s premiere gender illusionists.
Live Performance by Milk
Milk is an American drag performer and fashion model who came to international attention on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race.
DJ Brian Halligan
Brian Halligan is a veteran of Boston nightlife. He has deejayed locally at Legacy, Machine, Oberon, The Alley, Club Cafe, Jacque’s Underground, Midway Cafe, and the Middlesex Lounge, both solo and as a guest DJ at FUZZ, Serving Face, Houseboi, Grassfed Disco, Boyfriends, Superstition, Group Hug, Traniwreck and Solid Gold Tea at Provincetown’s Boatslip, and held a residency at Cirque/Pub 47 Central for 2 years.
Joy Skate Productions was founded in 2018 by Elin Schran, with a mission to make the joy of skating accessible to all. The company produces professional quality shows with low or no ticket price and provides instructive and creative clinics and workshops for every level, ability, and age. joyskateproductions.com
The Skating Club of Boston is one of the oldest skating clubs in the country and has recently opened a brand new, state-of-the-art training facility in Norwood, MA. Be Here! Be YOU! will take place on an Olympic-size ice surface in the Tenley E. Albright Performance Center. Advertising opportunities are available for sponsors on the Daktronics overhead display, and can be arranged by contacting Joy Skate Productions. For more information about the facility, please visit scboston.org.