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Pride Stride event draws 40 walkers

Pride Stride event draws 40 walkers Pride Stride event draws 40 walkers

On Saturday, June 12, Medford had its first ever Pride Stride walk take place. The event was organized by Faith Peterson and another parent of a member of the local LGBTQ+ community.

As parents of LGBTQ+ children, both of the organizers wanted to show their children that support existed in Medford. “[We are] looking for support in the community, for acceptance,” said Peterson.

They started planning the event in February and received sponsorship from the Community United Church of Christ located on East Broadway Ave. The event was also put on by the Pride Tribe, a public Facebook group created to support the LGBTQ+ community in the area that now has nearly 100 members.

The event consisted of informational and raffle booths set up at one of the pavilions along Centennial Parkway near City Park. There was also a path set up to go around the Millpond, designated by signs giving words of affirmation and acceptance. The path was open throughout the day, but a group walk took place in the afternoon. There were over 40 people registered for the event.

Peterson explained how she was impressed with the turnout of the event and that she was surprised by how many people turned up for it. The other organizer shared a similar sentiment.

“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback in the community. Right away, we had people supporting,” said one of the event’s organizers. “I think we’ve gotten more support than we had planned on.”

The money raised through the event is being used as scholarship money to send LGBTQ+ youth to Moon Beach’s Rainbow Retreat taking place at the end of August.

Courtney Scholl attended the event as a representative of Stepping Stones, Inc. and provided people with resources that the organization has available.

“It’s important to us to promote healthy families, so this is part of that. It’s something that not all families know how to deal with if they have a child who’s coming out,” said Scholl.

The organizers said that while they’ve received a lot of support, they also received a small amount of negativity towards what they were working on. They received a couple of social media comments against the event and a peaceful protester went to the event with signs.

Peterson and the other event organizers said that overall, the event turned out well and that they were happy with how it turned out.

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