Th e Offi cial Employee Newslett er at the Evergreen Association of Western New York, Inc. - September 2011

Cause for Celebration is coming back. That

won’t mean much if you’ve been with the

agency fi ve years or less, but for nearly twenty

years prior Cause was our most popular fund-

raiser, and it’s coming back. You’ll be hearing

a lot about this event over the next few weeks,

so here’s a quick overview of the basics.

Cause for Celebration is really a two-part

fundraising event. On November 19, support-

ers from all over Western New York will throw

parties for family, friends and co-workers. It

might be a gourmet sit-down dinner, simple

hors d’oeuvres and cocktails, or even pizza

and wings for the gang. Guests at these par-

ties will be asked to make a donation to ACS

as “payment” for attending. At 8:00 p.m. party

attendees and hosts will converge at the Con-

necticut Street Armory, where we provide

music, dancing, live entertainment, a cash

bar, su

sino g

later y

theme

ties, D

Cause

gas. Yo

even t

Cadilla

Ka

opmen

ready

comm

There’s

round

and Ca

evenin

ture is

tion as

a legend re

umptuous desserts, an art auction, ca-

gaming and maybe a few surprises! In

years Cause events were built around a

e: Carnivale, Hollywood, Roaring Twen-

isco. The theme for our “welcome back”

is the glitz and glamour of old Las Ve-

ou might see showgirls, the Rat Pack, or

he King himself, Elvis, pull up in a shiny

ac convertible (yes, even in November).

thy and Christina in Resource Devel-

nt are working hard to get everything

for November 19, eagerly assisted by

ittees made up of staff and volunteers.

s a lot of energy and excitement sur-

ing the return of this popular event,

ause 2011 promises to be a wonderful

ng for attendees old and new. Watch fu-

ssues of Connections for more informa-

s it becomes available. - John Carocci

eturns

Above: Marcus and Kate with Emperor 20 FannyRivera at the Imperial Court of Buff alo’s Disbursementof Funds fr om Reign 20. Marcus and Kate accepted checks in excess of $7,000 to support the Life Changes program and the agency’s Food Bank. Th e SouthernTier Offi ce and the Pride Center also received support.In total, over $10,000 went to support the programs of the Evergreen Association. Below: special thanks to Empress Jade Jett e, pictured here with Matt hew John.

Gary’s Garden MakeoverWhen I fi rst moved to my apartment, there were ten foot high hedges around the porch and in front of the win-dows, which I trimmed down to a decent length so as to be seen from the porch. I also mowed the lawn regularly. Shortly thereaft er, the landlord, at many tenants’ request, cut down the hedges for safety reasons and took over “yard maintenance”. Th e landlord had the idea of creating a garden in the center of the lawn, so he brought in a load of dirt and just randomly dumped some of it, putt ing the rest where the hedges had been. He lined the perimeter of both new spaces with awful-looking, multi-colored pav-ers. Th e space against the house was covered with weeds that the landlord had allowed to get three feet tall. Th e lawn wasn’t in any bett er shape — he only mowed it once a month then left the long cut grass strewn across the lawn

(continued on next page)

(Gary’s Garden continued fr om previous page)

like a fresh cut hay fi eld. In the center “garden” he planted a holly bush that soon became overrun with weeds and choked out. For approximately twelve years, I’ve main-tained a garden on my third fl oor apartment porch, where I’ve grown corn, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, peppers, lett uce, onions and various fl owers in containers. Last year, Buff alo in Bloom “Bloomed” my porch garden, whereby the impe-tus for creating a garden in the front yard began. Elatedly talking to coworkers about my recent “bloom”, they eagerly off ered their help in creat-ing the apartment garden. Th e transformation began aft er an initial clean-up of the yard and removing more than eight large trash bags of leaves, brush, weeds and debris. Next, the hedge roots were removed and I tilled the soil to make it ready for planting. I removed approximately 14 wheelbarrows full of dirt, and designed retaining walls, creating a few diff erent levels within the new garden. Chris Voltz, Kate Gallivan, and Kim Harding were instrumental in making this new garden happen by providing me with plants they divided from their own gardens, chicken manure, and their time and energy in layout and planting. Th e new garden, nicknamed “Th e Late Bloom-ers” garden by one of the tenants, has spurred everyone to take pride and ownership in the space around us. Other tenants weeded the side garden, and trimmed and hauled brush from the back and side yards. One of the tenants, return-ing at 11:00 p.m. from a week on vacation, saw the garden in the dark for the fi rst time, got on-line, and ordered a patio set for the front porch. He drove 45 minutes the next night to pick it up. Th e new garden and transformed yard has had a great aff ect on our neighbors—they now talk to us, because we are no longer the ugly step-child yard on the block! - Gary Williams

Justin Peglowski — I was in my freshman year at Canisius College majoring in Biology/Pre-Med.

Tara Grier — I was living on campus at Alfred Uni-versity as Resident Assistant and studying Perform-ing Arts and acting as a bad angel in “Dr. Faust”.

Felicia Cruz — I served in the United States Ma-rine Corps (stationed in Beaufort, South Carolina) and I just had my fi rst and only daughter on August 7, 2001. I came home to Buff alo in September with her. When 9/11 took place in New York City I had to stay in Buff alo longer with my newborn. I went back in October, 2001 and 1½ years later I served in Iraq in the Iraqi Freedom War.

Johnny Mora — Ten years ago I was living in and experiencing all the excitement that the big apple of-fers. I was living in Jackson Heights Queens, second largest LGBT neighborhood outside Greenwich Village; working full time at Takashimaya, a Japa-nese department store on 5th Avenue; also I had just started a photography class at Hunter College, where I obtained my bachelors degree in fi ne arts. Despite my very busy schedule, I managed to make Tuesdays my days off from work and school. One of those days while resting at home, I came back from the kitchen, to continue watching the morning news and noticed a peculiar sci-fi horror movie on TV. At that moment I didn’t remember changing the chan-nel, and had started toying with remote control and all of TV stations showed one of the twin towers from the world trade center under fi re. I couldn’t

believe what I was watching, minutes later another plane crashed against the second tower. My fi rst thought was to get on the E train to Wall Street area and do my photography assignment based on a his-toric event, but I was too disturbed from the scenes on TV and the actual view from my roof top. When the towers started to collapse, I received numerous phone calls from school, work, friends and family from Ecuador and Europe. It was hard to convince some relatives who never been to NY, that I was out of the borough of Manhatt an, which according to the world media, was under att ack.

Yeaben Gompah — I was working as the Offi ce Manager for a family owned business (Safari Group, Inc.) in the North Buff alo area.

Ava Encarnacion — I was living in Nashville, en-joying life, and taking exotic vacations every six months… I could do that, gas was only $1.19. Flights were cheap!!!

Julie Vaughan — I was living with roommates in Buff alo’s West Side on the other side of “Litt le” Summer Street, a gorgeous garden haven. I was an Accounting Clerk at M&T Bank and worked in the same building as the Gold Dome.

Kevin Bidtah — I was gett ing married to the wom-an of my dreams. I had worked at ACS for 1 year (was an Assistant Case Manager in COBRA ). Just purchased a small 3 BR house in Cheektowaga in July, 2001. Still had my earrings in.

where w10 Years Ago... 10 Years Ago...

Maisha Drayton — 10 years ago I was here in Buff a-lo… living on the west side… just gett ing back from my honeymoon.

Tom Needham — I had just fi nished working for the summer in a factory making BB guns on an assembly line and was about to begin my sophomore year at UB with an undecided major, driving a Subaru with bad brakes and wearing some wide leg jeans.

Brendan Orrange — I was in a galaxy far, far away. I was fi ghting the Empire over my home planet of Tatooine with Old Ben and my droids.

Saw Min — I was in Burma and worked as a prin-cipal of a middle school in an insurgent area and a malaria region of Karen State. Karen State was one of the worst states in Burma where most of the Burmese refugees came to the United States.

Rashone Scott -Williams — I was planning a vaca-tion to NYC for my fi rst wedding anniversary with my husband. I could have been there when the tow-ers fell.

Stephanie Vroman — Ten years ago, I was starting my senior year at Sweet Home High School. I was balancing trying to fi gure out where to go to college, playing tennis and lacrosse and working at Pondero-sa. But probably the most interesting thing to happen to me that year, was experiencing my fi rst airplane fl ight ever… on which there was a bomb threat and an emergency landing!

Sheila Stephens — Well, 20 years ago I was living in Fort Bragg, North Carolina with my husband and two small children ages 3 and 1. My husband was a Green Beret paratrooper and I was att ending Rutledge Col-lege and working as a Title Clerk for an automobile dealer.

Mark Schnitzer — I was laid off from my job as a Visual Merchandiser at Kleinhans Men’s Store aft er 15 years. At 32 years old, I enrolled at Buff alo State College and att ended my fi rst semester in fall of 1991. And I was prett y much a stay at home dad for about two years; my youngest daughter was just 4 months old when I was laid off .

Kimberly Lombard — I had graduated Buff State and was volunteering at Ghost Ranch, a Presbyterian camp and high desert farm. I washed dishes, cleaned bathrooms, pulled cacti thorns out of children’s hands and feet and chased away wandering wild horses. I went to Mexico and had some fun.

Raymond Ganoe — I was fi nishing my undergrad (BSW) and working as an Addictions Medicine Spe-cialist at BryLin Hospitals. All of the other counsel-ors were “afraid” to take the HIV+ patients so I took them all and trained to be an HIV test counselor. Th at is how I got started in this fi eld.

Kate Gallivan — Twenty years ago at this time, in 1991, I was working as the Director of Operations here at AIDS Community Services. We had just start-ed our COBRA case management program in the

spring and had hired fi ve new staff for that program, including our fi rst Case Manager based in Jamestown. We were also planning our move in September from the old Jackson Building (now the Hampton Inn) to 121 West Tupper Street. It was a very exciting time for us!

Andrew Kiener — I was living in Florida and re-member laying on the beach listening to Whitney Houston and Boyz II Men on my brand new portable Sony Walkman cassett e player and wondering just what this whole Internet thing was about!

were you...10 Years Ago... 20 Years Ago... 20 Years Ago...

CONNECTIONS CONTRIBUTORS

PUBLISHER/LAYOUT JOHN CAROCCIEDITOR KIMBERLY HARDING

CONTRIBUTORS PRACTICALLY HALFTHE AGENCY ON THIS PAGE ALONE.I’M NOT TYPING THEM ALL OUT. JUSTGO LOOK AT THE PHONE LIST.

(P.S. - THAT’S A GOOD THING)

Kate Gallivan, Johnny Mora, Cathy Alvarez and I att ended the 2011 National HIV Prevention Con-ference in Atlanta, Georgia. Th is year’s conference theme was “Th e Urgency Now: Reduce Incidence. Improve Access. Promote Equality”. Th e four day event provided an opportunity to look back at the successes and challenges of the fi rst 30 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the lessons learned and how

we can apply these lessons today to have an even greater impact on the HIV epidemic. Sessions in-cluded the National HIV Strategy; Social Networks as a Tool of Engagement in HIV/AIDS Prevention; Tools for Integrating Mental Health, Substance Abuse and HIV Prevention; and Developing an HIV Testing Campaign for Black MSM just to name a few. Participants also had the chance to meet venders and

service providers from other agencies and groups all over the United States, there to provide educational material on programs and services that were off ered. Th e conference ended with an emotional closing that left us motivated to continue our fi ght against the epi-demic and determined to continue educating people about the importance of condom usage and safe sex practices to minimize the risk. - Jamila Banks

Th e summer is coming to an end, and Wine on Wednesdays re-turns with a dinner and wine tasting on September 14 at Lock-port Canalside. Th e cost is $55 per person or $45 per person for groups of four or more. Get a few friends or family members together and join us for a night of dining and wine tasting.

Other dinner dates and venues through the end of the year:October 12 – Buff alo Yacht ClubNovember 9 – Cecelia’s RestaurantDecember 7 – Botanical Gardens

If you have any questions, or are interested in att ending one of our Wine on Wednesdays dinners, please visit our website www.wine-onwednesdays.com or call me directly to make your reservation.

- Kimberly Harding

BirthdaysFatai Gbadamosi - September 16Alain Rodriguez - September 29

James Mohr - September 25Sheila Stephens - September 25

Kimberly Lombard - September 15Rashone Scott-Williams - September 8

Bridget McClain - September 10Jorien Brock - September 26

Jennifer DeMarsh - September 22Julie Vaughan - September 17

Jason Rein - September 20Shannon Bryant - September 20

Lucy Brown - September 14Corinne Henderson - September 11

Yakira Moreno - September 30

AnniversariesFatai Gbadamosi - 6 years

Susan Fiedler - 7 yearsGary Williams - 13 yearsShari DeMarco - 3 years

Kimberly Lombard - 19 yearsJennifer DeMarsh - 1 year

Felicia Cruz - 5 yearsKeisha Leavy - 6 years

Thomas Needham - 5 yearsLindsay Zasada - 1 year

Your Continued Dedication and HardWork Are Noticed and Appreciated!

– The Management Team

Thank You Liya, Ray and Matthew John for our grilled lunch!