Thank you, Oklahoma City

by Michael Clark
OKC Pride President

OKC Pride 2016 was a huge success and we thank the Oklahoma City community for joining us. It is always humbling to look over the sea of people filling 39th Street in support of the LGBTQ community. An event of this scope takes hundreds of volunteers, hundreds of thousands of dollars and months of preparation to pull together.

We cannot thank each of our volunteers enough for their commitment and hard work. There are a few individuals and organizations I would like to mention who had key roles this year that deserve special mention.

Mary Arbuckle and her team at Other Options have once again been a huge help to OKC Pride. Not only did they staff the beer truck sales but Mary’s relationships with key community members facilitated the success of our food court and volunteer recruitment. Mary is one of those special individuals who gives more to her community in a week than many do in a lifetime. We are all grateful for her involvement and support.

Pastor Neill Spurgin Coffman of Expressions Community Center coordinated both our Family Fun Zone and Love is Love wedding ceremony. Pastor Neill remains one of strongest allies year-round by offering us a place to hold our meetings each month in the building that houses some of this city’s best social service and community outreach organizations. His positive energy and eternal optimism is an inspiration to us all.

The Gayly not only publishes this column for us each month, it provides a wonderful source of information and outreach to our LGBTQ community. Our professional relationship is mutually beneficial but our appreciation goes far beyond the staff’s assistance with the newspaper. The Gayly staff are allies of this community and tireless supporters. They have their finger on the pulse of all that is happening and are always available to give some advice or just a pep talk when times get tough.

Several organizations helped staff our expanded Beer Garden this year. We were thrilled to be able to help them raise funds through patron gratuities and look forward to more partnerships in the future. AIDS Walk OKC, Dayna STRONG, Great Plains Rodeo Association, Other Options, Sooner State Softball Association and VisAbiliTy are all organizations that exemplify the strength and support of our LGBTQ community in Oklahoma. We are proud to have such wonderful community partners.

Finally, I want to thank the OKC Pride Board of Directors. This group of volunteers works throughout the year to build alliances throughout the community, raises funds, plans events and provides education and outreach across the diverse spectrum that is the LGBTQ community.

Being a member of any non-profit Board can be a difficult and thankless task but the OKC Pride Board of Directors is unique in that it is a true working board. We have no paid staff so all of the hard work that takes place year-round is done by the Board members. My hat is off to this dedicated team who pulled together to put on the biggest and best OKC Pride ever in 2016.

The Gayly – June 28, 2016 @ 12:30 p.m.