Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 22:31:55 -0700
From: Eros Publishing <eros@seattle.com>
Subject: Press Release

For Immediate Release
Do Not Publish After 12/31/96
Contact: Ted Lord, 206-323-3318

Lambert House, a Gay and Lesbian Youth Center 
to Receive $35,000 a Year for 10 Years from the Pride Foundation

The Pride Foundation is pleased to announce that Lambert House, a Youth
Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgenderal, & Questioning Youth,
will receive $35,000 a year for up to ten years.

This annual grant for general operating support is the result of an
unrestricted bequest to the Pride Foundation from the Estate of Bill
Lambert in honor of his son, Gray W. Lambert. In a codicil to the
bequest, Bill Lambert requested that the Board give first consideration
to the needs of Lambert House...over a period of years, not to exceed
ten. This funding from the Pride Foundation will represent 20% of
Lambert Houses total budget for 1997.

The Pride Foundation announced in 1995 that it had been notified of the
bequest of $450,000, the largest ever to a gay and lesbian community
foundation. We are honored by Bill Lamberts confidence that the Pride
Foundation would continue his sons work, said Ed Miesen, Board
President of the Pride Foundation at the time. Ted Lord, Prides
Executive Director, reflected, To me the simple message of this bequest
is the importance of family, of honoring the ongoing commitments of
those we love.

Lambert House has relied on both the Pride Foundation and Bill Lambert
since it opened. Lisa Schuchman, Lambert Houses first Board President,
said I know that Lambert House would not have survived its first two
years without the financial support of Bill Lambert and the Pride
Foundation. The youth saw him as a father who loved and supported his
gay son and did not abandon him. We were one of the first gay and
lesbian youth centers in the country, and there werent many who would
step forward and take the risk to support us. Thats why it is so
important to have a foundation for the gay and lesbian community. And I
hope more parents like Bill Lambert step forward.

Prides Ted Lord echoes that thought. The Pride Foundation began making
grants in 1987 to help build a strong lesbian and gay community. Bill
Lamberts bequest in memory of his son Gray is precisely the type of
proactive funding that Prides founders envisioned.

[The Pride Foundation works to strengthen our lesbian, gay, transgender
and bisexual community today, and build an endowment fund for tomorrow.
Since 1987, the Pride Foundation has made grants of nearly one million
dollars to over 150 organizations. As a community foundation, Pride
raises funds for its granting and scholarship programs, educates about
community needs and solutions, fosters leadership and promotes the
leveraging of available community resources.]

[Lambert House, 322-2515, exists to provide a variety of services and a
safe environment that embraces differences and encourages the healthy
growth and development of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgenderal and
questioning youth. In 1991, a consortium of community agencies serving
youth came together to establish a safe and supportive environment away
from local bars, sexual exploitation, and substance abuse. The house
opened in July of 1991. In 1994, a Board of Directors was formed to
govern Lambert House while retaining the goal of encouraging
youth-direction for the house to the greatest extent possible.
Currently over 60 shift volunteers help keep the house functional and
open for youth for 50 hours each week.]