Letter to the Cultural Center: A Bright Spot

I just made a very happy donation on your website! I live in Athens and my friend lives in Macon, and we met up "in between" in Madison with our husbands on our day off today so that we could have a little outdoor, socially-distanced reunion. (We haven't seen each other since last year.) When planning our visit, I noted on your website that the Cultural Center is still closed from the shutdown. I had always admired your beautiful tree-filled grounds, and since there wouldn't be any Cultural Center activities we would be interfering with, I suggested the lawn as a safe and comfortable place to sit in our lawn chairs and eat our sandwich lunches together.

It was so pleasant to visit while enjoying the shade, and I really was impressed with the beauty of your landscape, so lush and well-maintained by talented hands even during this shutdown. While we were we were sitting together and talking I saw an employee coming out the front door of the Cultural Center—she was locking up and had to pass us to get to the parking lot. I didn’t know if she was going to tell us to go away (and we were ready to, just in case!), but instead she gave us a big smile and said it was so nice to finally see people there again enjoying their space! She added that this will be a sad Fourth because the Cultural Center isn’t able to have its usual big concert with lots of people on the lawn, so it made her happy to see us there celebrating the holiday weekend and she told us to stay as long as we wanted and wished us a great time. Wow! What a warm and kind and caring person she is! I was really touched by the way she made us feel so welcome.

Later, as we packed up our chairs and tidied up, I became excited with the idea to make a donation and send you all a note of appreciation when I got back home. Thank you for being such a bright spot for us today! I have been inside your museum and event space before, and I look forward to returning after you all open again. I hope your preparations for that are going smoothly and that you emerge from this shutdown with an outpouring of support from your community, who greatly appreciate all that you do!

Best wishes,
Christy Sinksen
Athens, GA