As the COVID pandemic devastated the social fabric of our community in March of 2020, we turned to cyberspace for programming. Our monthly Women in the Raw Meetups became Women in the Zoom. Initially, our sole purpose was to assuage the loneliness of quarantine, reconnect with our community and offer a safe space for women to vent about how their lives had changed.
During these virtual gatherings, we learned of Gifford Historic Museum and Cultural Center Director Jonnie Mae Perry’s dream of a new cultural center to expand upon the small historic African American museum in the Historic Macedonia Church in Gifford. We learned that the church had been built in 1908 by black railroad laborers at night using found materials. Jonnie’s idea was to build a complex to surround the church. This new cultural center complex would not only expand the existing Gifford Historic Museum and Cultural Center but also the resources and cultural programming offered to the Gifford community.
We decided at that meeting to make the new Gifford Cultural Center our next FE project. We partnered with Jonnie Mae and her steering committee to help with marketing, fundraising and planning. Our first initiative was an email and social media GHMCC membership drive. The purpose was not only to raise funds but also to garner community-wide support, as Jonnie prepared to request land appropriation for the center from the Indian River County Board of Commissioners. In April 2021, The IRC Board of Commissioners issued a proclamation in support of the Gifford Cultural Center Project. As our next significant fundraiser, net proceeds from the sale of the Faces of Eve Art Book will be donated to the project.
