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JUNE 2003»

    Money,Volunteers in Short

Bv EUAN BEAR

etween the poor economy and new

demands imposed by the

Burlington Police Department,
P.R.I.D.E. Vermont is facing the downsiz-
ing of its armual month-long celebration of

 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer,

intersex, and allied identities, cultures, and
communities. Hoping this is a blip in the
growth of the festival rather than a sign of
decline, organizers are hoping for a huge
turnout for the Burlington Festival and a
surge in volunteers to work on the commit-
tee on an ongoing basis.

Pride Verrnont’s Brian Cina '
reported at Queer Summit IV that there
will be fewer events outside the Queen
City this year, fewer events in general —

not enough to call it a “Pride Month” as
was done last year — and that responses to
the committee’s fundraising and volunteer
recruitment efforts have fallen far short of
its needs.

At the same time, Cina insisted in
a phone interview that although there will
be “less things,” there will “not be less
quality of things.” The events that take
place will be stronger, better publicized,
more colorful, and better attended and sup-

ported, he said. And for the first time, there.

will be a Stonewall-Juneteenth commemo-
ration connecting gay and African
American experiences of discrimination.

Money, Honey

The Pride Vennont committee has held raf-
fles, benefit concerts (including Lucie Blue
Tremblay on May 31), written grants, and

solicited donations to make up its budget, -
asking the community to dig deep for our
communities’ celebration. Through press
time, Cina said in a phone interview, “We
haven’t been receiving as many random
donations.” Donations have increased
slightly since the cormnittee made avail-
able a flyer showing a fundraising ther-
mometer with the amount left to raise.
According to P.R.I.D.E. Vermont

treasurer Mary Abar, a veteran of three
years on the committee’s board, “This year
we are at barely 65 percent of our project-
ed budget. This is much less than we had
last year. At the present time, we are
approximately $9,000 short of meeting our
costs of a budget which has been scaled
back from our original Pride Festival
Annual Budget. To date, we have only
received $225 by mail-in donations.”

   

wwmmountainpridemedia.org

Supply

_Grant revenue is also down, in
part because the committee hasn’t gone
after funders that required specific activi-
ties or agendas to be addressed.

“We’re stretched so thin,” Cina
said. One source said there were only four
active members of the committee, while
Abar identified five to seven regular atten-
dees. Cina said, “People have come to
meetings for awhile and then just stopped
coming when we asked them to take on
some actual wor 

Bodies and Minds
Volunteers begin coming forward in May,
but Pride Vermont needs help long before
that: writing grants, lining up entertain-
ment, dealing with parade permits, arrang-
ing shelter and sound

systems, lining up °°”t'd °” Page 8

  
  

    

P

 
   
  

   

‘ r looks ,over~the scene‘ from
the State House.

while mere ucc churches
vote on whether they’re
ready for us.

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men on display in DC.

  
  

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