Lambert House into the future

I went to the Lambert House volunteer social yesterday afternoon, pretty much as ever, but this one was different from the last few: the director, Ken Shulman, was absent due to shoulder surgery, and it was in the actual house for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Yes, it was a lovely time chatting with and checking out my fellow volunqueers and their partners. But what really got my attention was the news of the org itself. I've posted here before about how the org has to temporarily move (!) while the house that we now own gets its foundation replaced (!!) and that we only had about half the total money to make it all happen.

Well, it looks as if between Ken's fundraising hustle and a lot of creative economizing, it's going to happen in the spring. Our host will be St. Mark's Episcopal Church Cathedral. For you non-Seattle folks, that's a century-old architectural landmark that's visible from much of the city. They're putting us in the "carriage house". St. Mark's is probably as good a location as we could get: it's big enough, it's transit-accessible, its security situation is good, and it's near enough to the heart of Capitol Hill, Seattle's gayborhood, that the youth should find it reasonably accessible.

Dinner was high-protein pasta with Brandon the volunteer manager and his fella. Yeah, gay men and their carbophobia. But another of the Lambert House staffers, a woman named Rebecca, drove me to the Cha Cha lounge to get my umbrella back (!) and then home to Fremont (!!). I was very grateful, especially given the ongoing maintenance on the light rail.