POTTSVILLE, Pa. — At Pressed Books and Coffee in downtown Pottsville, acceptance and inclusion are on the menu.
"Organically, over the last year and a half or so, Pressed and our sister company, Farlows, have been a staff entirely made up of women and trans men," said owner Abby Weaver.
For Mikaela Gavaletz of Pottsville, she's found a community here she didn't know existed when she was young.
"Growing up here in Pottsville as a kid wondering who I was, why I was. 'Am I alone?' I didn't have any answers to that, and I didn't have anyone to turn to," explained Gavaletz.
As an adult, Gavaletz spent some time in California and later began a medical transition. She says she returned home to Schuylkill County to find it wasn't as accepting as she'd hoped.
"It wasn't hard to notice there was not much going on as far as support for the LGBTQ+ community, no safe spaces that I could find," said Gavaletz.
So, she set out to make it more inclusive. In 2020, Gavaletz decided to start up a PrideFest in Pottsville to give people in the LGBTQ+ community that safe space.
In a matter of a couple of weeks, the event became a reality, even with COVID-19 restrictions.
"We got the green light to have Pride Fest, but we could only have 250 people in the area at the same time. People waited until others left. It started to rain, and people danced in the rain. It was magical," Galvaletz recalled.
"When you do something to include someone or make something more equitable, other people are a little more willing to do it as well, and that's the whole drop-in-the-bucket concept," said Weaver.
This June will mark the fifth year of the PrideFest. Shortly after creating PrideFest, Gavaletz started the nonprofit Youth Empowerment and Support to continue her work of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Schuylkill County community.
It's a mission the owner of Pressed Books and Coffee, Abby Weaver, says is evolving.
"We've been able to find safety here for some of those people who don't have it elsewhere, and I, as an owner, a woman, a mom, have been able to learn what different communities need that are different than the communities I grew up in, and Mikaela has been a huge part of that," said Weaver.
"It's been a wonderful, wonderful world here in Pottsville with the support of everyone I know. It's been incredible," said Gavaletz.