Hundreds Attend Opening of New CFI Office at Rockefeller Center

by DJ Grothe

The following article is from the Secular Humanist Bulletin, Volume 19, Number 1.

In an overwhelming show of encouragement and enthusiasm, hundreds of supporters and interested members of the public flooded the new offices of the Center for Inquiry-Metro NY during eight hours of reception on Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15. 

On hand to welcome the public were CFI Chairman Paul Kurtz, Free Inquiry Editor Tom Flynn, Skeptical Inquirer Managing Editor Ben Radford, national Field Director and Campus Freethought Alliance (CFA) Coordinator DJ Grothe, CFA Student President Debbie Goddard, CFI-Metro NY Chair Austin Dacey, and Executive Director of Community Outreach Barry Seidman.

The guests included large numbers of media professionals, health professionals, lawyers, graduate students, and academics, as well as leaders from most of the New York-area skeptic and humanist groups. They took in the spectacular views of Manhattan from the 28th floor, checked out books from the new lending library, and learned about getting involved with the Center as Friends or as members of the Volunteer Working Groups now forming. 

Meanwhile, a very favorable Associated Press story on CFI's New York operations was circulated on the national wire on Saturday and picked up by the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, the Guardian in the United Kingdom, and dozens of other media outlets.

DJ Grothe is the Council for Secular Humanism's field director, and Campus Freethought Alliance coordinator.

A statue of Prometheus graces the plaza at Rockefeller Center in New York City, site of the new home of the Center for Inquiry-Metro NY.