Cleveland Pride THANKS all sponsors, volunteers, parade participants and festival goers!
Thanks to all sponsors and community participants for making 2009’s pride festival the biggest in recent history!
To recap, here is a break-down of this year’s event, in numbers:
-52 donors and sponsors!
-10,000+ festival attendees
-2,091 parade participants
-250+ volunteers
-115+ vendors and exhibitors
-12 grand marshals
This kind of participation from the Cleveland community equals one amazing Cleveland Pride 2009 parade, rally and festival. Rarely do we have the opportunity to recognize our event, much less say ‘thank you’ to all of you! Thus, here goes:
Thanks to all of you for your heartfelt support and attendance at the 21st celebration of Cleveland Pride on Saturday, June 20th, 2009.
For the 21st celebration of Cleveland Pride’s parade, rally and festival, the planning committee and board of directors selected a theme of “Equality through Unity”, which will be carried-out throughout the rest of 2009 as a reflection of Cleveland’s LGBT community.
The theme was augmented by the selection of 12 city council members as grand marshals, who fought diligently to assure the passage of Cleveland’s Domestic Partner Registry in December of 2008, which went into effect in May, 2009.
“We [board of directors and planning committee members] believed that this year it was important to acknowledge and celebrate individuals that unify as a group to advance equal rights for the LGBTQI and straight allied community,” shared Cleveland Pride Board President/CEO Todd Saporito.
“Council members worked feverishly with LGBTQI community members and straight allied organizations and demonstrated that unity among individuals and organization can achieve long term relationships, diverse understanding, and ultimately results,” Saporito added.
Cleveland Pride’s leadership began enlisting significant volunteers for the 2009 planning committee in November of 2008. By the beginning of March 2009, Cleveland Pride’s planning committee totaled nearly 45 contributors, ranging in various levels of interest and expertise.
The first set of significant volunteers were divided into two segments. The first segment addressed soliciting returning sponsors and vendors, with an equal amount of attention to finding new sponsors and vendors. The second segment of significant volunteers where tasked with event management logistics including securing and scheduling all facility service providers and develop a full event management plan. Concurrently, significant volunteers began the task of scheduling all entertainment.
“As the entertainment committee completed their selection and scheduling for all of our entertainment, it became very clear that the downturn in the economy could have a negative impact on funding,” stated Cleveland Pride Board Treasurer, Lee Dybo.
“We asked for the entertainment committee to refocus their team and create a full-time fundraising committee. This committee would manage fundraising events held over 12 weeks leading up to the Saturday, June 20th celebration. Our goal was to achieve a significant amount of funds to offset any potential reduction in overall sponsorship and donations,” added Dybo.
The fundraising committee scheduled eight (8) large fundraisers, some occurring in the same week. This team significantly exceeded all historical benchmarks bring unprecedented pre-pride funds for the organizations. These funds were used then for special purposes, like the new beer garden DJ booth or to provide funding for specific entertainers.
The rest is for the history books.
On behalf of Cleveland Pride’s board of directors and significant volunteers, we express our deepest and most sincere thanks to all of those people that helped plan the 2009 event and thanks to those who attended.
Next stop–2010!
Cleveland Pride 2010.
June 26, 2010.
12:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Voinovich Park.
Cleveland, Ohio.
