Northwest GSA Hosts Pride Outside
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Northwest Gay-Straight Alliance [GSA] hosted Pride Outside for students and other GSA Clubs from different schools across Iowa to enjoy many fun activities at Northwest High School on September 16th.
Northwest GSA members and many volunteers worked hard to set up Pride Outside. Northwest was happy to host Pride Outside for GSA students from different schools. From snowcones to pizza, food was all offered for free to volunteers and people attending Pride Outside. Many activities such as face painting, games, tye-dying t-shirts, and spinning wheels for fun prizes were also offered during the event.
Pride Outside overall went smoothly. The event was a success. Students hope to host events like this in the future. However, due to a lack of funds, it’s not currently possible to hold events like these as frequently as GSA hopes.
“We really don’t have the money to do that, if we did, absolutely… I wish it was more possible [to hold more events like pride outside] because it was a great event, I would love to have it every year,” said GSA President Naomi Pittman.
Events like Pride Outside are important to host for students. Allowing people to feel included, safe and most importantly, to be themselves is one of the most needed things for students.
“The goal of Pride Outside was to give everyone an escape essentially… to give everyone a safe space,” said Volunteer Aidyn Hoffmann.
Pride Outside put much effort into making the event a success by creating a safe environment, and by bringing our community together.
Events like Pride Outside are fun to attend but with such an unfortunately targeted group, there were some concerns about hosting the event.
Attendee Jamie Mohr said, “[In regards to safety concerns,] yeah, people [might] get mad, pull up and start protesting like they did at the pride parade.”
Sergeant Ferrara made sure that volunteers and attendees felt safe at Pride Outside. Volunteers and attendees at Pride Outside greatly appreciated the support from everyone involved. Pride Outside was an awesome success, attendees, volunteers, and members of GSA hope to hold more events like this in the future.