Tell Us Your Story
Have a great story? We'd like to share it with others in the LGBT community.
Tell UsThis is Generic Admin's page
About Generic Admin
Posts by Administrator:
Simple ways you can help students like me
Dear Community Leaders & Educators:
Pride Foundation believes in a world where every student, regardless of income, ability, or identity can receive an affordable and quality education. They believe that, in providing members of our community with a good education, they are also ensuring a better world for tomorrow. Pride Foundation believes in helping students of all ages and backgrounds and those from all corners of the Northwest. I know this is true because I am one of those students who have been able to work towards my goals thanks to a scholarship from this.
Achieving this goal can be trying at times, especially with the geographic and political atmosphere of much of the Northwest. Too often, aspiring students from rural parts of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and Washington are forgotten or lost in what is known as rural America. Pride Foundation is making it a goal to reach more rural queer and ally students.
Resources and information are scarce, especially with regards to rural areas. This is where you and your organization are vital to achieving our shared goals. There are several simple ways that you can help students like me!
- Tell students about the scholarship. Put up a poster in your school or send interested students to PrideFoundationScholar.org to apply!
- Share information about your high school or college LGBTQ campus groups with Pride Foundation (email) to make sure they know you are sharing scholarship information with students. Knowing that LGBT student organization advisors are doing this is vital in connection students to the resources they need to pursue a higher education.
Today’s learners are tomorrow’s leaders. Your help would be invaluable. As a past Scholar from a rural area myself, I know that it was only through the endeavors of organizations like yours, that I was able to first here about the Pride Foundation scholarship program, which in turn, enabled me to pursue my educational dreams.
Thank you for your time and commitment to LGBTQ students.
With Pride,
Michael Profitt
Pride Foundation Scholar & Intern
Giving Circle announces matching challenge
Community matters: Whidbey Giving Circle
Hundreds of volunteers in communities of all sizes are working to ensure their local LGBTQ needs are being met. Our friends at the Whidbey Giving Circle have just announced a $5,000 matching challenge. Giving Circle Co-chairs Larry Lowary and Gerry Betz share the fantastic news.
Recently, the Whidbey Giving Circle was given a challenge grant that means new contributions up to a total of $2,500 will be matched dollar for dollar. Thanks to the generosity of the Morris Family Foundation, your dollars will go farther in helping us reach out goal for the 2010-2011 funding cycle now underway.
News of the grant was made a week ago at the second of two house parties: Mother nature smiled on us as about 25 members and prospective members met at the home of Mike Fleming and Michael Besch in Clinton.
NOW, another Giving Circle member has stepped up to the plate. We’re happy to announce a second $2,500 challenge grant for the Giving Circle. What that means is that new contributions up to a total of $5,000 will be matched dollar for dollar.
We say THANKS to Walking Woman Productions for the grant….and remind members (and those who are thinking about becoming members), that these two grants are exceptional ways to make your contributions count.
To date we have reached nearly half of our goal to provide continued support to Whidbey Island LGBTQ scholars and programs. Last year members donated $17,000 to fund three scholarships and two programs aimed at creating a more accepting and comfortable environment for gay and questioning youth on the island. Among the most positive success stories has been support for Gay-Straight Alliances at four high schools on the island Oak Harbor, Coupeville, South Whidbey and Bayview. Additionally, Giving Circle funds will provide major assistance for February’s production of “The Other Side of the Closet”, to be presented by the Whidbey Children’s Theatre.
If you have not done so, please consider supporting our efforts today. Your dollars will make a difference right here at home. Remember: 100% of our funds are distributed on Whidbey Island to recipients selected by Giving Circle members.
To make a tax-deductible contribution, visit the Pride contribution website page (www.pridefoundation.org/giving). In the comments section, please indicate you wish your funds given to the Whidbey Giving Circle. Or you may mail a check (made out to the Pride Foundation with a notation it is for the Whidbey Giving Circle) to Pride Foundation, 1122 East Pike St. PMB 1001, Seattle WA 98122. If you have questions, write or call.
Larry Lowary and Gerry Betz
2010-2011 Co-chairs
Whidbey Giving Circle
360-579-2172
NOTE: Pride Foundation and Whidbey Giving Circle information sessions are coming to Langley, WA November 17. Read more…
And the Raffle winners are…
Congrats to our Raffle with a Twist 2010 Grand Prize Winner!
The thousands of entries have been counted and the winners of our annual Raffle with a Twist are:
Grand Prize random draw – $2,500
Soromundi Lesbian Choir Of Eugene (Eugene, Oregon)
Alaska’s most nominated – $1,000
Identity, Inc.
Idaho’s most nominated – $1,000
Allies Linked for the Prevention of HIV and AIDS (a.l.p.h.a)
Montana’s most nominated – $1,000
Montana Human Rights Network
Oregon’s most nominated – $1,000
Human Dignity Coalition
Washington’s most nominated – $1,000
Camp Ten Trees
Bonus Twist 2010th Entry Prize – $250
Odyssey Youth Center (Spokane, Washington)
Congratulations to this year’s Raffle winners!
Thank you for helping us promote the need for community philanthropy and the importance of our nonprofit organizations. Please keep in mind that Pride Foundation provides grants and scholarships to a variety of projects and people that are creating LGBTQ equality.
Sign up for our monthly E-newsletter for news and updates about our grants and scholarships.
LIKE us on Facebook for a daily dose of LGBTQ national, local and Pride Foundation news.
Thank you, Fred Phelps!
Guest blogger and Pride Foundation regional organizer Farand Gunnels reacts to a visit by notorious anti-gay leader Fred Phelps.Thank you Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church for galvanizing Spokane’s LGBTQ community!
During his tour of spreading hate through Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, hundreds of Anti-Phelps protesters took to the streets on Thursday. There were students, bikers, parents and community leaders honking their car horns, chanting words of peace and raising creative signs that made it clear that Spokane did not support his extremist ideas.
If it weren’t for the heavy (but friendly) police presence, you may have mistaken the event for a gay Pride parade.
At one of several Westboro protest stops less than a dozen anti-gay protesters stood at the corner of Hawthorne and Waikiki Streets near Whitworth University caring placards reading the standard “God Hates Fags” placards. Also added to their placard arsenal was “Thank God for Breast Cancer” and “Judy sent Matt to hell” – a reference to murdered gay Wyoming student Matthew Shepard and his activist mother Judy.
The presence of Westboro in our community has helped to bring progressive people together and provided a chance for us to build support and talk to new allies that simply hadn’t known such ignorant hate existed.
Later that evening, concerned citizens and LGBTQ leaders gathered at a community meeting hosted by the LGBT Center and Westminster Church to share ideas and strategize on how best to react. For weeks leading up to the visit organizations have been networking to ensure that LGBTQ groups s are working collaboratively.
This was a great inspiring d
ay for Spokane’s LGBTQ community. However, as proud as I am that so many people came out to support LGBTQ equality, the fact that many of the Westboro members were clearly teenagers indoctrinated with hateful messages reminds me that much work in our community needs to be done. As memorable a day Phelps visit was, our work as activists and organizers needs to continue.
To connect with Farand and Pride Foundation’s work in Eastern Washington email him at [email protected].
Moscow/Pullman’s Pride on the Palouse
Guest blogger Corey Fortune is a member of steering committee member for Inland NW Steering Committee. He shares his adventures at Pride on the Palouse earlier this year.
Moscow (ID) Mayor Nancy Chaney is presented with a plaque from Pride Foundation/Inland Northwest by Pride Foundation's Corey Fortune
Being accustomed to the Pride celebrations of larger cities like Portland, Seattle, and even Spokane, I was unsure of what to expect on my first trip to Moscow/Pullman’s Pride on the Palouse. I made the drive on that Saturday morning to represent the Inland Northwest Pride Foundation Steering Committee in presenting an award to the city of Moscow for the celebration of diversity in their community. Moscow is not a large city by any means. With a population of just over 22,000, they are a tiny blue dot in the sea of red Idaho.
Moscow holds a Pride march, rather than a parade, but the couple of hundred participants didn’t seem detoured as they marched triumphantly into, and around the park. After the MC of the event welcomed the marchers to the 2010 Pride, a few drag performances took place and a couple of guest speakers. One of which was Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney. Nancy spoke of her pride in the city and people of Moscow for holding such a great event, and for being so supportive and welcoming. I then had the privilege of presenting our award plaque to her, onstage, inform of the several hundred park attendees.
Once the award had been presented, Nancy didn’t even skip a beat in taking me around the park and showing off her city’s brand new pride and joy award. After meeting several community volunteers and city officials, it was clear to me that Mayor Chaney is a strong ally for equality and leads a city equally as supportive. I was very pleased in our recognition of Moscow, and it was only greatened when Mayor Chaney informed me that the award was to be presented to the City Council, by the Mayor, at the monthly televised meeting the following Monday evening.
“Make a better world for queer youth today.”
Guest blogger Nathan Brockett of Stonewall Youth participated in Pride Foundation’s Queer Youth Capacity Building Project, a series of trainings dedicated to connecting and strengthening organizations and leaders supporting LGBTQ youth across the region. Here’s what Nathan has to say:
Stonewall Youth participants at the QYCBP graduating reception (L-R) Director of Programming Emily Pieper, Board Chair Nathan Brockett and Executive Director Colleen Dixon.
Stonewall Youth has graduated! Over the past 18 months, the Pride Foundation funded the Queer Youth Capacity Building Project in collaboration with the Gates Foundation. Stonewall Youth was one of several organizations that graduated from this organizational capacity building project.
I work with Stonewall Youth, a radical queer youth empowerment organization in Olympia, Washington. I was excited to have participated in this program. Not only did we receive guidance and consulting hours from NAO, a consulting firm based in Portland, but we had in-depth and in-person trainings with the other queer youth organizations. We held each convening at a different organization’s offices and had an opportunity to see queer youth spaces from around the region!
Being able to collaborate with other organizations who share a focus of serving queer youth was moving and empowering. I felt like we were each part of a greater movement, like we were not in this alone, and together we can make a better world for queer youth today. There were many serious moments of information-sharing, collaborating, and problem solving. There were moments of joy, laughter, good humor, and tear-filled gratitude.
Standing together at the last convening of this program and looking around at the faces of these incredible leaders in queer youth service, I was filled with confidence that this was not an ending, but a new beginning. With increased capacity and increased collaboration we will go forth and leave a legacy of empowered, supported queer youth, who will lead this movement after us.
Nathan Brockett
Chair, Board of Directors
Stonewall Youth
Whidbey Giving Circle House Parties
There’s nothing like meeting new like-minded folks, catching up with old friends and supporting a great cause. Join Whidbey Giving Circle supporters Harry Anderson & Terry Bible and Mike Fleming & Michael Besch as they host two separate house parties.For more information and to RSVP please contact Larry at [email protected].
October 3
Coupeville, WA
3:00 – 6:00 pm
October 17
Clinton, WA
1:30 – 4:30 pm
Grants and Whidbey Giving Circle Information Sessions
Join Pride Foundation staff and Whidbey Giving Circle volunteers to learn more about funding opportunities in Island County and throughout the region for nonprofit groups. There will be two information sessions.Wednesday, November 17
Langley United Methodist Church
Langley, WA
Pride Foundation Grants Information Session
1:30 to 4:30 pm
Presenter: Jody Waits – Pride Foundation’s Director of Community Giving
Whidbey Giving Circle Information Session
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Enchanted: Disney Music TICKETS @ DOOR
Come celebrate Pride Foundation’s 25th Anniversary at Enchanted: An Afternoon of Disney Magic presented by the Rainbow City Band.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Broadway Performance Hall
1625 Broadway Street
Seattle, WA 98122
Performance begins promptly at 3:00 p.m.
This is an all ages event.
Tickets available at the door.
Tickets $10
(There is no charge for children five years of age and under.)
100% of ticket proceeds will be split to support Rainbow City Band’s Scholarship fund and Pride Foundation.
Scholar: “Pride Foundation saves lives”
Pride Foundation scholar Mike Pham
Guest blogger Mike Pham is a Pride Foundation scholar studying in Seattle. In the last year, there have been a series of suicides by LGBTQ high school students in one school board district near Mike’s hometown in Minnesota. Most recently a 15-year-old, Justin Aaberg, took his own life in July after being repeatedly bullied for being gay. As Pride Foundation scholars are often working to build healthier communities, Mike reflects on this ongoing tragedy.
I don’t know if you are aware of this story, but I wanted to bring this to your attention as it hits close to home for me, as I grew up in the same area as these kids. I went to a nearby school district, and Anoka is about 10 minutes away from my hometown. There is a suicide epidemic currently happening there and I am unsurprised at the situation, as I barely survived myself. It’s a complex story, but a common one. I wish I could write more, but time does not allow.
I mean it when I say that Pride Foundation saves lives. It is organizations, like Pride Foundation, that continue to provide opportunities, motivation, and money to LGBTQ people to go to school, get an education, to become self-sufficient and get themselves out of situations that are seemingly beyond their control, giving them a chance, to be rewarded and recognized for who they are, with no conditions.
For me, as a young gay person, I felt like there was no way out – no way out of the perpetual torment from the isolation that comes from constant bullying by peers and consistent denial and rejection from parents, friends, church, and community. I know what that’s like, I am from there. I was one of those kids. And I survived. I am thankful I found a way out. And I am thankful to Pride Foundation and its amazing donors and volunteers for helping me. I am amazed everyday.
Thank you.
Please share this. More people need to know about this story – even though this is happening in Minnesota, this is an epidemic that needs attention and LGBTQ youth need to know the resources that are available to them.
To read more details about the story see:
Article about student Justin Aaberg from the Stranger, “Read it and weep”
“Do you think my son Justin deserved to die because there are other kids who feel superior by picking on him and no staff member will stop them?” - Tammy Aaberg questions the Anoka-Hennepin District School Board (From the Minnesota Independent)
Loading ...