Harriet Hancock Center gala to celebrate 30 years, fundraise for LGBTQ community

A “Hollywood Glamour” fundraiser will mark 30 years of the Harriet Hancock Center’s celebration of the Midlands LGBTQ community.

It will be the first gala hosted by the center that was founded in 1993 and moved to its current location at 1108 Woodrow St. in September 1994.

Cristina Picozzi, the center’s executive director, came up with the idea for the gala. And she thought a fundraiser was in order.

She noticed the “lack of consistent support” when she joined the organization as a volunteer in October 2023. 

That lack of support “looked like a lot of different things, from lack of financial support, lack of hands and people being able to do the work,” Picozzi said. 

Since she became executive director in March, the center has been consistent with its peer support programs that serve its wide variety of members. 

Picozzi called the gala a “promise” to the Midlands community that “there will not be a gap in services again,” the way there was during COVID-19, when so many other community services also shut down.

“One of the most frequently said things to us this year is, ‘I wasn’t able to get services from you guys during COVID,’” Picozzi told the Carolina News & Reporter. “‘And so I stopped coming. But I’m really glad I came back.’” 

Center volunteer Kayleigh Locke serves on the gala planning committee. She also was on the committee that recently planned Queer Prom, a prom for LGBTQ youth. 

“I usually try to butt in whenever I can whenever I think there’s a cool event going on,” Locke said. “So when I heard this was coming up, I was like, ‘Put me on the list.’ And Cristina was like, ‘Yes, I already know. You’re already on there.’”

Locke credited the center with making her into the person she is today. 

“When I moved down to Columbia, South Carolina, it was almost a culture shock,” said Locke, who’s from the Washington, D.C., area. “I didn’t see the openness and the culture and those sort of things that made me feel very comfortable in my own skin. So the center, to me, is a place where I can be fully myself. And people that come in can fully be themselves. And it is a safe space for us.” 

The center’s impact has reached more than just the LGBTQ community in the Midlands. It has helped people not in the community, such as Meg Jones. 

“I can see so easily how beneficial and how impactful (the center) is to the community, even for those who aren’t queer,” Jones said. “I’m a parent, and I’ve joined the group – a group that’s a new group – so it isn’t well established, but it’s for parents of queer kids. And so it’s not just for queer folks, but it’s for those who love queer folks.”

Picozzi saw the effect the center had, even as a “paid staff of one.” She wants to raise at least $15,000 to $20,000 from the gala so she can add more staff and expand on existing services. 

“We talk about sustainability of an organization,” Picozzi said of COVID’s lesson. To get “that longevity – you can’t just take the free labor. You have to pay people. You have to compensate people.”