2020 was certainly a challenging year. NW PA Pride Alliance is grateful for wonderful donors and supporters like you who helped us bring Pride to Erie. Like the rest of the world, changes had to made quickly to ensure the health and safety of the community. Although we were able to host the first ever Pride night with the Erie Otters in January 2020, many other events were changed or canceled.
We had big plans for this year to grow Pride Fest and set a new attendance record. Although those plans have been pushed back for now, we were still able to hold a Virtual Pride. We partnered with Erie Playhouse to stream a Virtual Pride event on June 27 that was hosted by our very own Alex Sphon and Tony Gressley, Erie Playhouse Executive Director Kate Neubert Lechner and WJET's Samiar Nefzi. We look forward to building relations with organizations like Erie Playhouse more in upcoming years. We used our Virtual Pride to celebrate the Pride for LGBTQIA+ community and bring awareness to the Black Lives Matter Movement through speakers and Zoom presentations.
Our community support this year was needed more than ever. We were happy to participate in the Drive your Pride Event on June 28th with a parade of Pride decorated vehicles from the Tom Ridge Environmental Center around the peninsula.
Finally, this year we hosted first time events aimed at giving back to our community. On October 13th we partnered with Dickey's BBQ, Greater Erie Alliance for Equality, TransFamily of NWPA and the Northwest Alliance for a mobile HIV testing event. In a safe socially distance environment, members of the community were able to get a free HIV test and had the opportunity to register to vote. We hope to make this a growing opportunity for the years to come. On October 29th we again partnered with Greater Erie Alliance for Equality to host a Blanket and Coat Drive. The donations were given to the Ryan White Project, who distributed them to those in need through the Northwest Alliance and Community Health Net.
We are continuing to monitor the pandemic to see if any changes will be needed for the 2021 Pride events. We cannot do this without the continued support of donors and our community partners. We will be holding our main Pride event on Saturday, June 26 and tentatively are scheduling the Pride Picnic for Saturday, August 14. The format for Pride Fest will be determined by health and safety concerns, and the picnic will also be finalized whether or not to proceed as we get closer to the actual date.
2020 Donors - Thanks!
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