AEGiS-WashBlade: Cherry Fund to donate $173,000 to gay charities, AIDS effort

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Cherry Fund to donate $173,000 to gay charities, AIDS effort

Washington Blade - May 24, 2002
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

The Cherry Fund, the D.C. organization that produced the city's Cherry 7 gay circuit party last month, raised approximately $198,000 in net proceeds and will donate $173,000 of that amount to gay and AIDS related charities or causes, according to Bruce Namerow, vice chair of the group's board of directors.

Namerow said the remaining $25,000 will be used for start-up costs for next year's Cherry circuit party.

Namerow said that out of the amount designated for charities, $70,000 will be donated to a fund earmarked for a soon-to-be created D.C. Gay & Lesbian Community Center; $40,000 will go to the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, which provides programs for gay youth; $35,000 will go to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Foundation, which provides training for openly gay candidates running for public office; and $10,000 will go to the Mautner Project for Lesbians with Cancer.

Namerow said donations of $1,000 each would also go to three local gay athletic groups: the Washington Renegades rugby team, the D.C. Aquatics water polo team, and the Washington Wetskins swim team. In addition, the Cherry Fund will make a $1,000 donation to the gay Delta Lambda Phi Fraternity Foundation.

Namerow said the Cherry Fund will hold $10,000 from the $173,000 designated for charities as an emergency fund, to be disbursed to one or more local gay or AIDS organizations during the next year if an unexpected development requires financial assistance.

In a development that the group did not publicly disclose until this week, Namerow said the Cherry Fund will earmark $5,000 from the $173,000 total to an "HIV/AIDS advertising campaign" run by the Cherry Fund. He said the campaign would focus on HIV-prevention messages aimed at population groups deemed to be at high risk for HIV. Namerow said the Cherry Fund has also specifically earmarked $30,000 of its $40,000 donation to SMYAL for SMYAL's AIDS education and prevention programs.

Namerow's announcement this week of the AIDS advertising campaign and the SMYAL funds designated for AIDS programs comes after some Cherry Fund supporters criticized the group earlier this year for not including an AIDS organization among the groups designated as recipients for Cherry Fund donations.

Namerow said he did not have a figure for the total gross revenue generated by the Cherry 7 event, which he said drew about 4,000 people who paid admission fees ranging from $15 to $245, saying the group's accountant has yet to complete a financial report for the event. However, Namerow said the accountant told Cherry Fund organizers that overhead expenses would be no more than 50 percent of the total amount donated to the designated charities and programs. If that figure holds true, then at least two-thirds of the party's gross receipts will reach the charitable beneficiaries.

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