Charlotte Pride kicks off 2021 events this weekend with service projects, clothing drive
After a year-long hiatus, Charlotte Pride’s four-month 2021 season kicks off this weekend with service opportunities and a clothing drive.
The city’s largest festival and parade is returning this year with in-person events, but spread out over the course of four months to avoid widespread gatherings of people in a short span of time. The celebrations were canceled last year — which was supposed to be their 20th anniversary — due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The weekend is envisioned as an opportunity for the LGBTQ community and its allies to give back to the city and our neighbors after the struggles and challenges experienced through the pandemic,” a release reads.
The farm support service event will take place at the Urban Farm at Aldersgate from 9 a.m. until noon on Aug. 21. A clean-up of Statesville Avenue in partnership with Keep Mecklenburg Beautiful is being hosted at the same time, and a virtual service opportunity, Phone Bank for Equality, is from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Aug. 22.
Clothing will also be accepted until Sept. 12 at local LGBTQ-friendly businesses as part of Charlotte Pride’s clothing drive. Some of the items encouraged for donation include masculine clothing in smaller sizes, feminine clothing in larger sizes, and items for business and professional wear. The collected clothing will be made available at the Charlotte Pride Free Store, hosted during the Pop-Up Pride Festival on Sept. 18. More information will be announced soon.
Several community organizations that have planned their own events for the weekend include Habitat Charlotte’s interior painting project, Gender Education Network’s drag queen story time and school supply drive, Time Out Youth’s donation drives, Queer Society Charlotte’s supply-our-students school drive, and Transcend Charlotte’s and One Voice Chorus’ Popup Market for transgender and gender-nonconforming community members.
“Our August Mini Market is the last in-person event of Transcend’s Sacred Summer Campaign which we launched in June to celebrate the sacred identities that are queer, trans and gender-diverse people,” Transcend executive director Bethany Corrigan said. “We’re so grateful to our partner, Charlotte Pride, for their hard work in safely planning this year’s festivities during the ongoing COVID pandemic. We hope you’ll come out this Sunday and celebrate your sacred self with us!”
Volunteers can find more information and events and sign up at https://charlottepride.org/service/.
Charlotte Pride usually draws nearly 200,000 visitors a year and creates millions of dollars in revenue for the city.
The next Charlotte Pride event, its Interfaith Service, is Sept. 12. The season concludes on Nov. 13 with the Charlotte Pride Community Empowerment Conference and Job Fair. More details will be released soon about upcoming events.
For more information on this year’s Pride Season, please click here.
