Oddfellows + Comics
Aug. 2nd, 2019 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
potofsoupOur local Oddfellows Lodge is full of really cool people who are interpreting their 19th century mission of "Visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead and educate the orphan" to include building local community. So in addition to hosting events for foster children ('educate the orphan') and people with chronic illnesses ('visit the sick'), they reached out to our comics group and asked if we'd like to host a Pop-up Gallery in their prime downtown space and donate at least 10% of our proceeds to a nonprofit of our choice.
So yesterday, we had a fantastic time talking to local people who walked in off the street, and ended up donating $102 to the Trangender Legal Defense and Education Fund! I was really proud of our group -- I was initially a little worried whether we'd have enough stuff to really fill the space, but we ended up with 6 tables and a variety of comics, prints, and stickers. :3 It was SO MUCH FUN.
It's really interesting and cool that this particular Oddfellows lodge has a bunch of young people in their 20s and 30s, who are working to revitalize this benevolent association (starting by making the fraternal order less fraternal). I think that we need more non-Church-affiliated local community spaces with an explicit mission to serve the community, and revitalizing (and updating) these old associations is a great way to do it. (Especially since they have been around long enough to actually have community spaces in prime downtown locations.)
So yesterday, we had a fantastic time talking to local people who walked in off the street, and ended up donating $102 to the Trangender Legal Defense and Education Fund! I was really proud of our group -- I was initially a little worried whether we'd have enough stuff to really fill the space, but we ended up with 6 tables and a variety of comics, prints, and stickers. :3 It was SO MUCH FUN.
It's really interesting and cool that this particular Oddfellows lodge has a bunch of young people in their 20s and 30s, who are working to revitalize this benevolent association (starting by making the fraternal order less fraternal). I think that we need more non-Church-affiliated local community spaces with an explicit mission to serve the community, and revitalizing (and updating) these old associations is a great way to do it. (Especially since they have been around long enough to actually have community spaces in prime downtown locations.)
no subject
Date: 2019-08-02 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-03 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-03 04:36 am (UTC)Yah, it was great fun! And I'm glad that there are people trying to revitalize these groups.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-03 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-03 11:10 pm (UTC)Most likely! There's a LOT of various lodges of various "fraternal orders", and most of them were big from the 1930s-1960s, so members are mostly in their 80s. And a lot of them own some pretty good real estate near small downtowns because they were there when those towns were being built. I'd rather have community-minded people bring fresh blood to these organizations, instead of people who would rather use it to line their own coffers. (A lodge in a nearby city is mostly used to host parties for its members and rented out for $$). As far as I can tell, it mostly functions like an HOA -- there's monthly meetings where people vote on what to do with the space and the money.