Pride Fund and Rainbow Bursary Recipients Announced!
Pride Fund and Rainbow Bursary Recipients Announced!
Rainbow Youth Leadership Bursary:
McKenna Harper
Mckenna has been involved in numerous activities through her high school career, including being Gender and Sexualities Alliance president since 2019, mental health respondent for queer youth, and a Junior Spark, Brownies, and Girl Guide Leader.
Having advocated for a better environment for her LGBTQ2+ peers at Central, Mckenna also worked with her school to adapt the biology curriculum to better fit trans students, improve the availability of gender-neutral bathrooms, and organize educational lunches for teachers to learn about their LGBTQ2+ students needs.
Mckenna has demonstrated a passion for community involvement, leadership, support for the LGBTQ2+ community and has paved the way for many others at her school to develop acceptance and understanding of the LGBTQ2+ community.
Owen Vermeersch
Owen has been a member of the London Heat Cheerleading and Western Cheerleading teams, as well as the student council. Through his actions in student council, he helped to foster a caring and inclusive environment within the school. Through his challenges, he helped to teach others the importance of acceptance and speaking up for yourself. His actions standing up for himself when faced with hardship due to his orientation was inspirational.
Owen demonstrated a passion for leadership in his roles both inside and outside the classroom by supporting his peers. Learning from his own experiences with bullying, Owen overcame many obstacles so he could create a welcoming environment in any activity he participated in.
Pride London Festival Endowment Fund
BGC London – Sexuality and Gender Equality (S.A.G.E) Program
At BGC London, we have started our S.A.G.E. program which is an inclusive and safe program for youth in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to promote social and emotional learning. Through a combination of educational and social gatherings, youth will have the opportunity to build friendships and learn about topics of their choosing. In the summer of 2022, our youth advisory council will be recruited from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to create and shape the program to meet the needs of the youth. Topics that we will ideally cover in this program include sexual health for youth in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, safe online dating, healthy relationships, etc. However, we will be developing the programs and socials based on the decisions of the youth advisory council. This program will support students in two categories, ages 10-13 and 14-17. We will be running these programs out of BGC London in partnership with Anova to provide accurate information to the youth.
Rainbow Optimist Club (Canadian Children’s Optimist Foundation) – Elgin County Pride 2022
Elgin County Pride will be from Monday, August 8, 2022 to Sunday, August 14, 2022. Events include:
The Rainbow flag at St. Thomas City Hall raised by the County of Elgin
The Rainbow Speakers Panel
Drag Queen Bitchy Bingo
Family Day with Drag Storytime, Entertainment including Movie in the Park and vendors Grant specifically to fund the Movie in the Park)
Drive-by Parade, Indigenous Women’s Association drumming, Drag show and vendors
These events will show the LGTB2Q+ community that Elgin County is a welcoming community. It will show Elgin County that it’s a community that strives to be a safe and accepting. These events will help open doors, support rural LGBT2Q+ youth & their families, educate the community, and create opportunities for everyone to participate and to be included in their community.
Elgin County Pride will be promoted so Elgin County residents and visitors can join in celebrating inclusion, diversity and experiencing the Elgin County rural hospitality. These events will enhance Elgin County promoting inclusion and diversity, allowing all to participate. Equality is for all!
Royal Imperial Sovereign Court of London SWO (Keeping Kids Warm) – Drag Up Close and Understood
Through a workshop on drag, we look forward to sharing the history of drag, providing a forum for discussion on pronouns, doing a question and answer panel for people to ask questions, as well as a drag show to entertain the masses. Drag has been around in History for years, however there are so many types of drag out there. Drag is a huge part of our community and you will see people in drag at most community events. This event will showcase the Drag Community and would be catered to anyone and would take place in the City of London, Ontario. We would be compiling a list of well know drag queens in the community from the older generation to the newer generation to have an age gap and variety to showcase inclusion and diversity.
Regional HIV/AIDS Connection – Rainbow Classrooms
Rainbow Classrooms is a project that supports teachers in their journey towards becoming advocates to their queer students and building queer inclusive classrooms. We provide pride flags to teachers looking to take another step towards showing their queer students that they are and always will be an integral piece of their classroom. We also provide consulting and professional development for teachers to provide guidance as they create their classrooms. Our hope is to bring the celebration of queerness and queer identity that has always been so important to the queer community into the classrooms where LGBTQ+ kids learn and grow. This year, Rainbow Classrooms is looking to send 1500 flags across the province.