The board of directors of Fiesta Youth announced this week that the organization has leased space at Woodlawn Pointe where it will have room to hold its weekly meetings and maintain an office.
“With this new lease space we will be able to provide more youth programming and events throughout the year and have a central location within the city limits for all youth to attend,” Darrell Garcia Parsons, Fiesta Youth’s board president, said in an email to supporters. “Woodlawn Pointe is a center of community within our city . . . It offers a sense of community as soon as you walk in the doors and is already home to our annual LGBTQ Youth Prom.”
For the last five years, the group has been meeting weekly at the University Presbyterian Church.
Woodlawn Pointe is located at 702 Donaldson Avenue on the city’s near northwest side not far from Thomas Jefferson High School, Woodlawn Lake and the Deco District. The complex is already home to several LGBTQ organizations including a theater group and the non-denominational Living Church.
Fiesta Youth’s meetings will move to Woodlawn Pointe in April. The first youth meeting will be on April 2, and the first parent meeting will be on April 9. Both meetings are from 6:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m.
An Open House is scheduled for Saturday, March 16 at Woodlawn Pointe from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. with food, refreshments, activities, a tour of the building, and an official ribbon cutting ceremony.
Members of Fiesta Youth marched in the 2018 Pride San Antonio parade. (Photo via Facebook)
This year, Fiesta Youth is observing the fifth anniversary of providing a safe and supportive environment for LGBTQ youth (aged 12 to 18) to express who they are without fear of rejection or harassment.
Fiesta Youth was founded by Emily Leeper, the mother of a lesbian teenage daughter who struggled with anxiety, social ostracism and depression after the girl came out. “At that time, I searched the web looking for an LGBT youth group in San Antonio. My search was fruitless,” Leeper explained.
The mother and daughter began visiting local LGBTQ organizations to ask for help starting the new youth group. “The response was overwhelming” says Leeper. Today, Fiesta Youth’s weekly meetings are attended by scores of teenagers.
On April 20, Fiesta Youth will hold it’s biggest fundraiser of the year, an official Fiesta San Antonio event dubbed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a masquerade party which will be held at the Veranda on Lockhill-Selma Road in Castle Hills.
Use this link for more information about Fiesta Youth’s meetings and events.
