pagan pride day

Saturday was Pagan Pride Day, here in Salt Lake.( http://saltlakeppd.org/ ) In the past I have vended at this event and had a pretty good time. I am not one for volunteering, or at least I wasn't until recently but this year, I did.
The reason I did is mixed. This year, 3 of my best friends(Tamara, Kayote, and Chrissy) had the job of Local Coordinators. They decided to not have vendors this year but to go with the original mission of The Pagan Pride Project ( www.paganpride.org ) which is to basically be for muggles. It is so that pagans can give information about our beliefs, dispel myths, network and make new friends. So I decided since I couldn't vend, I would give back to the community that has supported my efforts in the past and volunteered to be the Registration Supervisor and I also volunteered to do a drum circle in the afternoon.

It all went swimmingly! We arrived at Murray Park at 8 a.m. for set up with the event starting at 10:00.

This year was going to be different for several reasons. As I stated above it wasn't going to be a free for all carnival where weirdos show up in capes, hats and staffs ready to spend big bucks on pagan trinkets. This was the year we spent money on advertising. We had adds in the Trib, the D-news, In Salt Lake, The City Weekly, Q Salt Lake, The Catalyst and a voice over done by yours truly on KRCL. This year we wanted to get word out to the general public and on Saturday, we had over 370 people show up! I was in charge of getting them signed in! It was something else.

Also as the registration supervisor it was my job to coordinate where we were going to have our donations go this year. I picked the Utah Aids Foundation ( http://www.utahaids.org/ ) and am really happy to report that we collected 412 lbs. of non-perishable food items! I know how much because I was the lucky girl who sat and tallied all the stuff!

Speaking of weirdos, we were all still there, with hats on and smiles all around. People came and stayed. People, lots of people attended workshops and the drumming was amazing. The whole "no vending" thing was an experiment and it went so well. I had a really long day but I am still buzzing about now. I told Tamara that if she needed me, I would do it again next year. WOW! Who'da thunk it?

All and all a really positive experience. I admit I am surprised that I feel the way I feel. Before the event I was planning on just dropping out of sight and not doing anything here in Salt Lake ever again. I am really happy that I had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. I met so many people I had never seen before and they all wanted to know about paganism and that is GREAT!

Here is a photo link! ENJOY!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfrose/sets/72157607299586081/