St. John’s Pride holds colourful meet and greet

Reaching out to the community with chocolate, sunglasses, wristbands and whistles

Members of the St. John’s Pride board of directors stood in the middle of the Water Street pedestrian mall Sunday, handing out chocolates, sunglasses, whistles, rainbow-coloured wrist bands and taking pictures with the passersby.

Greg Noseworthy is a member of the board of directors and said the scheduled meet and greet was their first opportunity for the board to reach out to the community.

“We had planned to have more community engagement and community outreach throughout the year, but we were unable to do that,” Noseworthy said.

The board wants to send a message to the community that its members are approachable and transparent, he says.

“It’s an opportunity for people to come down and meet us, find out who’s representing the St. John’s Pride community and what we’re doing, find out what’s going on for Pride Week and for the rest of the year,” Noseworthy said.

The chocolates and whistles being handed out resulted in much fanfare from kids, who often jumped at the opportunity to blow a whistle or savour a chocolate, before struggling to open the packaging. Luckily, parents and grandparents were there to lend a hand.

Bicyclists and skateboarders manoeuvred through those leisurely walking, people who pushed strollers, held hands, or clutched the leashes of their dogs, some of which had rainbow bandanas around their necks in support of LGBT+ humans.

Karin Power, another member of the board of directors, said it’s been an interesting year for the board.

Switching to virtual was a bit of a challenge, Power said. But their first online event went well and she’s hoping their online concert series is successful, too.

Mike Vincent was downtown for a stroll and decided to pop in for a beverage.

“It’s different, but everybody’s still coming together,” Vincent said of this year’s Pride Week.

Vincent is from this province, but would usually be in Toronto for Pride Week. He said helping each other is what Pride Week is all about.

ANDREW WATERMAN/THE TELEGRAM Members of the St. John’s Pride board of directors. From left are Garvin Greening, Mackenzie Grace, Andrew Sonsogno, Karin Power and Greg Noseworthy.

ANDREW WATERMAN/THE TELEGRAM Outside The Grapevine on Water Street, where the St. John’s Pride board of directors held their meet and greet on Sunday.