OUTniagara thanks donors who stepped up during Pride Month
OUTniagara thanks donors who stepped up during Pride Month
OUTniagara is honoured to recognize the businesses and individuals who made unsolicited donations to OUTniagara’s Community Fund in June.
Without their help, OUTniagara would have fewer funds to distribute when individuals or organizations request financial assistance.
We thank our generous friends, in no particular order:
- Bench Brewing Company, $2 from each Pride Pack sold
- Niagara Green Witch, $5 from each T-shirt sold
- Patty’s Gals, $5 from each rainbow sweater sold
- The Pampered Peach, 100% of sales from SugarBrig Strip Kit (at-home hair removal)
- Deanna Spencer-Walker, window painting in Ridgeway
- Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers, a portion of sales
- Lakeview Wine Co., $5 from every Pride Gift Pack of wine sold: check out their campaign video here
- Small Batch Juice Company, $250
- OKAY SIS, 100% of sales from Pride daisy bracelets and anklets
Deanna Spencer-Walker was one of our kind donors. If you admired the window rainbows in the town of Ridgeway in June, you can thank her.
Deanna owns and works at The Revival Salon in Ridgeway. She’s not a stranger to fundraising – she has volunteered in that capacity for 10 years for Women’s Place of South Niagara.
Armed with paint and other supplies paid for by a supportive Downtown Ridgeway BIA, Deanna painted 17 windows at seven downtown businesses, mostly in rainbow colours and themes. Colourful handprints were courtesy of Wyatt, young son of friend Sarah Payne-Macrae Cairns.
“I have wanted to organize something around Pride for years,” says Deanna, “and have celebrated proudly at my shop, not just in June, but we’re Queer all year! I advertise my salon as a safe Queer friendly-alliance space and always have. I wanted to encourage other businesses to get on board with embracing the fact that such a simple thing can lead to such important strides towards representation and acceptance in a rapidly changing world.”
Deanna, who identifies as Queer, raised $580 for OUTniagara. She hopes that next year, more businesses will climb on board, “raise more funds and awareness and have an actual Pride-focused event in downtown.”
OUTniagara applauds those individuals and companies who are trying to support and raise the visibility of the sexual- and-gender-diverse communities of Niagara.
-30-
