by Paul Rado
On July 23rd, 2016, Brian (my
partner) and I took part in Belleville, Ontario pride celebrations where we set up a booth to
promote GNI. Belleville is a small town
in eastern Ontario. The event was very
well attended in thanks to a well-run Pride Committee and progressive community leaders. The weather was picture
perfect. It was a very festive day with a
colourful and loud parade and a
"village fair" with several vendors and various organizations. Many people showed interest in
our GNI booth. This was a great
opportunity to introduce people to GNI and the Gathering. While we would
have loved to have been naked at the event, Brian and I decided that public nudity would have been a bit much
for a small town like Belleville.
We
did, however, have GNI Gathering promotional postcards to hand out, a large GNI
poster to proudly display, a GNI promotional video on my laptop, and a GNI
information binder I put together including a past newsletter, information on
the Gathering and GNI, and printed Gathering registration forms. Our table was
adorned with the 30th Anniversary GNI towels. Brian and I put on our Canadian
charm and talked up GNI and the Gathering event to the many people who keenly stopped
by our display.
We hope to have attracted people to GNI by our presence at Belleville Pride. We also hope to have a booth again at Belleville Pride next year, and perhaps others pride events in Eastern Ontario, such as in Kingston, where a larger pride event happens every June.
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| Brian T and Paul R represent GNI at Pride. |
