FOOD & FRIENDS
The kick-off project for the Chorus’s new Community Outreach Committee involved committing ourselves to Food & Friends by providing a steady stream of volunteers to this worthy organization. GMCW provides 6 – 8 volunteers two evenings per month.

TOY DRIVE
Each December, GMCW hosts a toy drive, collecting more than 500 new toys for under-privileged children in the Washington, DC, area. The tradition, begun by late founding member Bob Wonneberger and his partner Stanley Allen, has become an annual Chorus event. Toys are distributed through Community Family Life Services. To complement our toy drive, the Chorus also adopted four families (one for each musical section) to help provide targeted holiday gifts for families in need.

OUTREACH PERFORMANCES
Over the past several years, the Chorus has reached beyond the borders of the city and performed for new audiences and rural gay communities. Audiences at Montgomery College, Carroll County Community College and Frostburg State University have all welcomed us to their campuses in recent years. We are also scheduled to perform on May 20, 2007, as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the Steven Kaufman AIDS Outreach Project, established in memory of Steven Kaufman by his family. The project, located in Baltimore, offers education and outreach to raise community awareness about HIV/AIDS. Plans are in place to perform at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, in September.

NIGHT OUT AT THE NATIONALS
GMCW sang the national anthem at RFK on August 8, 2006, as part of Team DC’s Night Out at the Nationals II. We will be performing again for Night Out III in July. Team DC is an organization established to encourage and support involvement in team and individual sports within the GLBT and broader community in the Washington metropolitan area.

CHRISTMAS CAROLING
Each Christmas Eve, members of GMCW visit the National Institutes of Health to sing carols for patients and staff to make their holiday brighter.

ANNUAL MLK, JR. CELEBRATION
GMCW participates in an annual celebration of the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This event is co-sponsored by the GLBT Arts Consortium of Washington, DC, and Capital Pride.

CAPITAL PRIDE
Each June, GMCW participates in the Capital Pride Parade and performs as part of the Capital Pride Festival.

STUDENT TICKET FUND
GMCW encourages high school and college students to attend Chorus performances by making free and discounted tickets available in coordination with Gay/Straight Student Alliances and other student groups.

PWA TICKET FUND
Complimentary tickets are made available to people living with HIV/AIDS through our health-service partner in the community – Food & Friends.

SIGN INTERPRETED PERFORMANCES
GMCW regularly provides professional sign interpreters at its concerts for the hearing impaired.

BENEFIT SUPPORT & PERFORMANCES
The Chorus regularly supports and performs at events for other area not-for-profit organizations, such as the Human Rights Campaign, Whitman-Walker Clinic, Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, the Mautner Project for Lesbians with Cancer, Community Family Life Services, HERO, Sussex County AIDS Commission, PFLAG-DC, Food & Friends, NOVAM and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.