Be Here! Be YOU!

Joy Skate Productions welcomes you to join “Be Here! Be YOU!” -- a celebratory skating and dancing “fun-raiser” supporting the LGBTQ+ community. The charity event brings together the fun of skating, gender illusion, exciting performances, great music and joy.

Be Here! Be YOU! will be hosted by world and national figure skating champion, Randy Gardner, and the guest of honor will be Julie Thompson PA-C. The show will benefit Fenway Health, and will include live performances from Boston’s premier gender illusionist Mizery McRae and drag performer/fashion model Milk. Boston veteran DJ Brian Halligan will bring the music.

Be Here! Be YOU! will take place on an Olympic-size ice surface in the Tenley E. Albright Performance Center at The Skating Club of Boston, 750 University Ave, Norwood on Saturday, June 3rd from 6-9:30 p.m.

What: Be Here! Be YOU! LGBTQ+ Skating and Dancing Party and Fundraiser

Where: The Skating Club of Boston, 750 University Ave, Norwood

When: Saturday, June 3rd at 6-9:30 p.m.

General admission is $20, Youth (18 and under) and students with a valid ID $10.

Includes parking, music, skate rental, and a skating session. Additional amenities at The Skating Club of Boston include a cash bar, cafe, and gender-neutral bathrooms.

Host, Randy Gardner

Randy Gardner is a World and US champion and an Olympic pairs figure skater. His illustrious life has been captured in the documentary Go Figure: The Randy Gardner Story. Randy’s journey to overcome the obstacles life has thrown at him and rise to the top of his sport is truly compelling. His speaking program inspires participants to never give up and focuses on turning negative situations into positive triumphs.

Guest of Honor, Julie Thompson PA-C

Julie joined Fenway Health in 2010, and was named the Medical Director of the Trans Health Program in 2016. She is a primary care clinician leader who specializes in LGBTQIA+ health, high-resolution anoscopy, and is an HIV Specialist through the American Academy of HIV Medicine. As the Medical Director of the Trans Health, Julie works to guide Fenway’s multidisciplinary team approach to provide high-quality, informed care to the trans and gender diverse communities. She leads on-going education to support Fenway’s medical providers, as well as works interdepartmentally to ensure Fenway is a welcome space for all patients and staff, regardless of how they identify. Julie is faculty at the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, providing trainings to health centers nationally and internationally. She is also established as core faculty on TransECHO and TransLINE, both of which are gender affirming medical consultative services for health care providers across the country. In April 2022 she was appointed to serve on the Board of Directors for the United States Professional Association of Transgender Health (USPATH).

Mizery McRae is one of Boston’s premier gender illusionists.

Milk is an American drag performer and fashion model who came to international attention as a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Fenway Health (benefit charity) Since 1971, Fenway Health has been working to make life healthier for the people in our neighborhood, the LGBTQIA+ community, people living with HIV/AIDS and the broader population. Fenway was founded in 1971 as part of the free clinic movement by students who believed that “health care should be a right, not a privilege.”

In its early days, Fenway was a drop-in clinic providing free blood pressure checks and STD screenings. Over the years, Fenway obtained permanent space and incorporated as a freestanding health center with a staff of one volunteer doctor, one nurse and one intake worker. Today, Fenway Health has a budget of more than $131 million, a staff of more than 700 and a patient population of nearly 40,000.

Fenway Health is a Federally Qualified Community Health Center.

Fenway Health advocates for and delivers innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education. We center LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC individuals, and other underserved communities to enable our local, national, and global neighbors to flourish.

In 2001, Fenway launched The Fenway Institute, an interdisciplinary center for research, training, education and policy development focusing on national and international health issues, especially related to LGBTQIA+ communities.

In 2009, Fenway moved into the Ansin Building, the largest LGBTQIA+ health care, research and education facility in the world, and an anchor institution in Boston’s thriving Fenway neighborhood.

In 2010, Fenway welcomed the Sidney Borum, Jr. Health Center into the Fenway family. The Borum serves teens and young adults ages 12-29, and is a safe place for at-risk youth, including LGBTQIA+ young people, homeless teens and young adults, those struggling with substance abuse, involved with gangs or doing sex work.

In 2013, the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts also became a part of Fenway Health. AIDS Action serves people living with HIV/AIDS and populations at risk of infection, and leads the state’s Getting To Zero Coalition, which seeks to reduce the number of HIV infections to zero. It also operates a needle exchange that serves as an entry point to healthcare services for active substance users.

https://fenwayhealth.org/

DJ Brian Halligan is a veteran of Boston nightlife. He has solo and guest deejayed at dozens of clubs throughout Boston and Provincetown.

Joy Skate Productions was founded in 2018 by Elin Schran, with a mission to make the joy of skating accessible to all. The company produces professional quality shows with low or no ticket price and provides instructive and creative clinics and workshops for every level, ability, and age. www.joyskateproductions.com

The Skating Club of Boston is one of the oldest skating clubs in the country and has recently opened a brand new, state-of-the-art training facility in Norwood, Massachusetts. For more information about the facility, please visit www.scboston.org

Contact Joy Skate Productions with questions or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities using The Skating Club of Boston's overhead Daktronics system during Be Here! Be YOU!

Contact: Elin Schran

elin@joyskateproductions.com

617-407-4805