by Evelyn Bailey
In October, 2011 I asked Anthony Mascioli, a friend, native Rochestarian, and gay business man, for a rather large donation to the Shoulders To Stand On 90 minute Documentary on the LGBT History of Rochester.
I explained that the documentary has been in the making for over 40 years, and that our history needed to be documented and preserved. He responded by saying he is much more comfortable Matching Donations than just giving a donation outright. Thus began the planning for raising $10,000 between December 2, 2011 and January 15, 2012.
You need to understand that Tony is a very sharp business man. His challenge energized the Shoulders To Stand On Committee who then began in a very focused way to energize the community to raise the money. If we had simply been given the money, we would not have reached out to the community strategically, and we would not have developed a longer range plan for actively raising money.
I think Tony knew the impetus of meeting his challenge would create other avenues of support and fundraising, and bring in more money.
As of Sunday, January 8 we had reached our goal of $10,000 plus.
The total budget for the Documentary is $120,000. We are on our way toward reaching that goal. Our fundraising efforts have brought in approximately $16,000. With Tony’s match of $10,000, our total to date will be around $26,000.
Tony’s generosity will make the video taping of individual interviews for the documentary possible. We need to bring in another $15,000 to finish the filming. Next will be the editing and finally the finished product. An educational kit will be developed for the documentary to be used in schools k – 12, corporate diversity programs, and on college campuses. This educational kit will become the foundation for a curriculum on local lgbt history.
Finally, Shoulders To Stand On will work to legislate inclusion of lgbt history in the local history curriculum for New York State.
Tony’s contribution brings us closer to filming the 90 minute documentary on the LGBT History of Rochester, NY. The LGBT history of Rochester will be told by the stories of the many men and women who have contributed to our fight for equality and justice. Education through the sharing of personal stories has been shown to have the largest impact on lowering or removing barriers to acceptance. The stories of these courageous men and women need to be told to bring to light the many contributions the LGBT community has made, and their impact on the social, economic and political life of Rochester.
Shoulders To Stand On is proud to recognize Tony Mascioli’s support of this community project. With more shoulders like Tony’s, we will reach our goal of completing the documentary for the 20th Anniversary of ImageOut October, 2012.