Greetings!
Welcome to the Washington DC Center’s September newsletter. As a reminder, the Managing Council has decided to postpone the reopening of the Washington DC Center until COVID transmission rates decrease in PG County, Maryland, in addition to other concerns. Please see below for more details. We also have had some unexpected maintenance issues recently. Both the upstairs and downstairs air conditioning units stopped cooling, and we have had to replace all the seat cushions due to a mold problem. I have therefore asked the Treasurer to give us a summary of these new expense items below.
The Washington DC Center, unfortunately, has to postpone our reopening date until further notice. There will be no Sunday morning services beginning September 5, 2021!
Ensuring everyone’s safety while at the Center is important to us.
Since Prince George's County has increased its COVID infection rate to the high-risk level and now requires masks indoors, whether vaccinated or not, we decided to delay our reopening. We will reevaluate the reopening date once the PG County infection rate returns to normal levels.
In addition, we polled the service readers, ushers, and greeter teams and discovered there are not enough willing volunteers at this time to develop a service schedule in September.
We will continue to monitor the COVID recommendations for houses of worship using CDC, local county, and city guidelines. We will also poll our active members again to reevaluate if and when we can reopen the DC Center for services.
We appreciate your cooperation and patience as we work to determine the best time to reopen the DC Center.
Treasurer’s Report:
Thankfully, due to your generosity, our income exceeded expenses by $4,100 at the end of July. Unfortunately, in August we incurred $9,300 in unexpected expenses: $5,017 to repair our HVAC systems (including a new compressor unit for the upstairs), $3,000 to purchase new chapel cushions (to replace the old ones which were moldy), $600 for commercial cleaning of the carpets in the chapel and social room, and $690 to replace the rotten wooden window pane at the main stairs mid-landing with a white non-corroding metal panel. Our cooling expenses also increased significantly to almost $1,000 per month due to the high summer temperatures and the need to keep the building at 74 degrees to prevent humidity issues. If you would like to help with defraying these expenses, please donate using the yellow Donate button below.
There is a special blessing one receives when you support Paramahansa Yogananda’s work and the Washington DC Center during this challenging time. The Council wants you to know that we are grateful for your continuing donations that have been helpful for the DC Center to cover its ongoing fixed costs. Please see below for more information about how to donate to our Center or SRF directly.
In Master’s Service,
Wayne T. Lavallee
Coordinator
