Club Q management announces details of rebuilding and reopening

Club Q, the Colorado Springs LGBTQIA+ nightclub and site of the horrific mass shooting on November 19th, 2022 that killed five and injured dozens more, has announced a timeline for the Club's reopening efforts through 2023, along with a plan to alleviate financial hardship of former staff, contractors and entertainers.

As we approach the three-month mark following the mass shooting, we first want to thank the many organizations and individuals that have stepped forward to assist victims. We truly appreciate all your support for our community. We especially want to thank our local and state leaders for their support and care for our community during this time, including Governor Polis for his administration's commitment to healing our community. Our goal and intention has always been to return Club Q as a safe space for the Colorado Springs LGBTQIA+ community and will continue to tirelessly work toward that effort.

Club Q, in collaboration with the City of Colorado Springs, has partnered with HB&A, a women-owned architecture and planning firm based in Colorado Springs, to achieve our goals of a tribute to the victims and rebuilding the Club with enhanced security measures. Initial design concepts are expected to be delivered within the next 4-6 weeks. Enhancements to the existing property include a permanent standing tribute to honor the five lives: Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Derrick Rump. Their memories will be carried forward and honored forever, while we work to make Club Q a forever home for our LGBTQIA+ community.

We intend to use enhanced security measures, such as new screening technology and a hardened space. We are working diligently with local, state and federal agencies on these enhanced security measures and hope it can become a model for countless queer spaces across the country. We hope to share more along with the overall design concepts in the next 4-6 weeks.

Interior gutting of the existing Club Q building has not yet been set but will take place by April 2023 and we are on track to fully reopen by the fall of this year.

In addition to announcing physical rebuild efforts, Club Q management is proud to share a team rebuild as well. Club Q management has brought on two victims of the mass shooting as staff and plan to add at least one new staff role in the next month. These new staff members will work on an administrative basis, assisting management with the rebuild efforts, community relations and more. Details on a full staffing plan will become more clear and more available as the club nears reopening later this year.

From Matthew Haynes, founding owner of Club Q:
"It was 20 years ago that I fought through a very different time in our country to ensure our community would have a safe space to gather and commune. It has been two decades now that we have kept the doors open as a place where everyone, regardless of gender identity or who they love, had somewhere to belong. To everyone who has asked me to reopen the club, I assure you we are working very hard to bring our home back. We look forward to being able to gather as one community again."

On November 20th, 2022, Club Q management supported the Colorado Healing Fund to begin fundraising to support our victims and the families of those killed. Since then, Club Q has officially endorsed the Compassion Fund as an additional option for donating to victims.

Club Q maintains the official position, the same as the Compassion Fund, that a victim is defined as: a relative of those killed, an individual shot, or someone in the building during the shooting. We encourage organizations and individuals to continue to donate to the funds distributing directly to the victims. We want every penny from those funds to assist the victims and we are grateful for everyone who has contributed to those fundraisers.

On November 28th, 2022, Club Q created an official GoFundMe managed internally and at the sole discretion of Club Q management. This GoFundMe was created and advertised with three important and clear objectives: 1) to ensure our employees, as well as third-party entertainment contractors, did not suffer a reduction of income due to the sudden closure of Club Q, 2) to fund a permanent standing tribute to honor those we lost, the survivors of the attack, and the thousands affected, 3) to rebuild and return Club Q back to the Colorado Springs LGBTQIA+ community.

We are very pleased to announce that we are able to fulfill our first objective: distributing lost wages from our GoFundMe and other officially sanctioned fundraisers to former Club Q employees and third-party entertainer contractors.

We have crafted an equitable formula that is being used to faulty determine how much each individual will be receiving: The formula is based on an individual's historic average of net monthly earnings and is designed to help ensure there has not been a reduction of income during the last three months due to Club Q's abrupt closure. Further, we will take the historic average of net monthly earnings and distribute up to three months wages in a single lump-sum payout.

Club Q management will distribute these fund to former employees and third-party entertainer contractors beginning Friday, February 17.

Club Q is grateful to so many in the community as our employees and contractors have been the beneficiaries of numerous additional direct payments from other fund-raising efforts. It is with great pleasure we are now able to provide funds in addition to what many have already received,m so that our community can continue to heal.