Organization celebrates Equality Center opening
When Lin Erhardt first got involved with the organization now known as Out Boulder County more than three decades ago, she never could have expected what it would become.
On Friday evening, Out Boulder County celebrated the grand opening of its Equality Center of the Rocky Mountains.
The center, at 3349 Mitchell Lane in Boulder, serves as a permanent space for the organization that supports the LGBTQ+ community in Boulder County and beyond. More than 100 people packed the building on Friday to celebrate with an evening of food, music and fun.
Erhardt had trouble describing what it meant for her to witness the culmination of the work that she and so many others helped start years ago.
“It’s beyond words,” she said. “It’s the biggest dream I could ever have imagined in the ’80s.”
According to Out Boulder’s Executive Director Mardi Moore, the organization began looking for spaces to rent earlier this year. When it found the space on Mitchell Lane available for purchase, previously occupied by Room 214 marketing agency, it never expected it would be able to afford it.
But thanks to connections with its previous owners and an anonymous $500,000 donation, it was able to put a $1 million payment down to purchase the building. It’s now embarking on a $6 million capital campaign, with some of the money covering the cost of building and the remainder going to pay for programming the organization is now able to provide in its new space.
Out Boulder County believes the space will offer the needed room and facilities for it to hold supportive and creative events, programs and gatherings for the community.
For Moore, relationships are what her work is all about.
“Out Boulder County wouldn’t be successful if it hadn’t been for the relationships that were formed in the ’70s, ’ 80s and onward,” she said. “It wouldn’t be the organization it is without our volunteers, without our dedicated staff and without our board members.”
Erhardt agreed, recognizing the work of the people who began Boulder Pride back in the 1970s and 1980s as well as those involved with Out Boulder County today.
“We have woven a tapestry of our community,” she said.
Before the crowd came inside to see the new space, Gov. Jared Polis, of Boulder, the first openly gay man to be elected governor in the country’s history, said a few words.
“Really so much work and community love and support went into this. And that means a lot, especially when gay and lesbian and transgender and bisexual people are being targeted in many parts of our own country,” Polis said.