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YUSEF NAJAFI
Friday, December 24, 2004
WHAT WOULD IT take to get you to work on Christmas? More money or, perhaps, some
other form of payment?
This Friday, Dec. 24, and Saturday, Dec. 25, 31 gay men and lesbians affiliated
with Burgundy Crescent Volunteers (BCV), a group that provides free assistance
for gay and gay-friendly non-profit organizations in metropolitan Washington,
D.C., have signed up to help people they don’t know well.
In return, they ask for nothing.
“They’re willing to work hard that day and, normally, that should
be a day that people can take vacation and relax,” says Jonathan Blumenthal,
who co-founded Burgundy Crescent Volunteers with his partner, Eric Cohen, and
their friend Angie Hunt in 2001. “So it says a lot about them. It shows
that they are very giving people and have a sense of community spirit.”
The two organizations the volunteers are assisting this year are Green Door,
a nonprofit organization in Northwest D.C., founded in 1976 to help people living
with mental disabilities; and Charlie’s Place, an outreach ministry at
St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, in Northwest, D.C., which provides services
for people who have no place to live.
“There is so much stigma attached to mental illness in the mainstream
community,” says Maureen Jais-Mick, director of development at Green Door,
which is holding its annual Christmas dinner on Dec. 25. “The volunteers
that are coming from BCV just see past that and see people as people. Maybe
that has to do with being gay.”
Twenty-five Burgundy Crescent members, among others, are scheduled to volunteer
to help serve food that day to 150 people.
On the fourth Friday of each month, Burgundy Crescent volunteers help serve
breakfast for clients at Charlie’s Place at 6 a.m. This month, that day
falls on Christmas Eve.
Jon Bolduc, the director and a social worker at Charlie’s Place, is expecting
a big turnout for the breakfast there on Dec. 24.
“We get a mix of people,” he says, “we have young people
in their early 20s and old people in their 60s, so it’s quite a range.”
Volunteers from Burgundy Crescent involved in this effort include:
This 42-year-old lesbian, who is “happily” single, works as a network
analyst for Arlington County School Systems in Virginia.
“It’s much more fun to volunteer with a group of people, because
it becomes a social event and a way to help the community,” she says.
Witherow plans to celebrate Christmas Eve with various lesbians in the area
who don’t have holiday plans. She lives in Annandale, Va., and is involved
in an online group called SocialFriends, which is comprised of about 250 lesbians
throughout the metropolitan area. A couple from the group has organized a party
for its members.
“My family lives in Warrenton,” she says. “They are ultra-conservative
Christians so, for me, my lesbian friends in the community are my extended family.
So I wanted to find an opportunity to spend time with them.”
Witherow says she was featured in the Washington Post five years ago, after
placing an ad in the Blade and holding a holiday-themed open house for lesbians.
Her actions partly were inspired by her family’s disapproval of her sexual
orientation.
“But also it has to do with the way I was raised,” she says of
her work as a volunteer. “My religious upbringing has been a blessing.
I also worked for the Peace Corps and seeing how spoiled we are just made me
want to give back to the community, specifically the gay community since I am
a part of it.”
Wagoner began volunteering to help others because he wanted to meet more people.
“And I was also trying to find something good to do with myself,”
he says.
A friend referred the 43-year-old Dupont Circle resident to Burgundy Crescent
Volunteers and the group has helped him meet a wide range of friends during
the seven years he’s lived in D.C.
“Every time you go to volunteer you meet somebody new,” he says.
Wagoner, who works as a software designer in Rosslyn, Va., says volunteering
during the holiday season is enjoyable on several levels.
“I guess the holidays are just a special time of year that you want to
give more,” he says, “and I’m single, so they can be a little
lonely, too.”
His faith also fuels his volunteer efforts.
“One aspect of Christianity is that when you are more spiritually centered
you become a more giving and loving person,” Wagoner says, “you
become more charitable and secure in yourself and God.”
This 52-year-old Jewish lesbian says Christmas is not a holiday that she celebrates,
“so that leaves me with a lot of time to help out other people.
“Being Jewish, and not celebrating Christmas, it’s not too bad,”
she says, “but there’s a lot of boredom when everybody is running
around doing things, which is why I started to volunteer.
“It’s good for me, as well as those who are getting the help,”
she says. “It’s like passing down hope. As down as you might feel,
there is a chance to get back up.”
The native of the Bronx in New York City moved to D.C. in 1979, and works as
a legal secretary for a law firm in Northwest, D.C.
This 46-year-old native of Germany says, “My grandmother taught me that
you have a duty to help others.”
He suffered a spinal cord injury 12 years ago, when he was involved in a car
accident with a drunk driver. Since then, he has been living with a disability.
“I got into volunteering because I have all this free time,” Ogle
says, “and I really enjoy it.”
He became affiliated with Burgundy Crescent Volunteers in 2001, and started
helping out at Charlie’s Place in February. “I have no family in
this country, so these are days were I can do things for the staff so they can
be off to be with their own family,” says Ogle, who is single. “And
it gets me away from those God-awful TV programs, which are depressing.”
He sees an ongoing need for volunteers in D.C. “It’s great to see
them now,” he says. “I just wish they’d be around the rest
of the year.”
In addition to volunteering with Burgundy Crescent, this 34-year-old art history
graduate student at the University of Maryland, in College Park, is a part-time
employee at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
“There is this sort of idea that we should be nicer to each other this
time of year,” he says, “but the spirit of Christmas is all year
long so, for me, I do it all year round. And this Friday just happens to be
Christmas [Eve].”
Walz, who is single, plans to help out at Charlie’s Place and also return
to Baltimore briefly to visit his family during the holidays.
“Since I came out,” he says, “my
relationship with my family isn’t the greatest.”
Religion also influences Walz’s volunteer efforts.
“Tradition and ritual are important to my life, and it [can be] the darkest
time of year,” he says. “It’s a time for everyone to come
together and watch out for each other.”
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Sara
Witherow 
Michael
Wagoner
Fern
Antipol
William
Ogle
Jonathan
Walz
