As Timmins Pride organizers focus on year-round education, this year’s Pride Week celebrations are being toned back.
Fierté Timmins Pride is still hosting Pride Week in Timmins from June 3 to June 9, with this year’s theme being I’m INclusive.
“Now what we’re doing is we’re spending most of our energy as becoming a resource for the community and working more toward education, but as a result because our energies are being worked more that way we’re having to tone back our Pride Week,” explained president Matt Villeneuve.
There will still be a rally, proclamation, and parade.
Instead of a big dance party, he said there will be a one-night comedy show with Elvira Kurt at the Dante Club.
While the group is open to having more events during the week, that’s where the community comes in.
Fierté Timmins Pride has issued a call to action.
“We’re hoping to have the community and businesses and maybe some volunteers who are willing to invest either time or money in helping to plan other activities because at this moment...we’re having to scale back on our part on how much we’re actually investing,” he said.
This year will be the sixth Pride Week in Timmins.
Villeneuve said it's a group of about eight volunteers doing the work.
“We’ve been doing the planning every year and working really hard to do it, and the thing is that we’re tired. I’m being very blunt about it, we’re tired and we’re looking at making a better impact in the community because it got to the point where after the Pride Week, everything goes back to status quo,” he said.
Over the past year, he explained the organization has tried to position itself as being a resource in the community.
He said they’ve been working with Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSA) in high schools throughout the district, working with businesses and focussing on education to make the community a safe space 24/7.
“We’ve been investing our energy, and our money in kind of putting that into place. As a result, we don’t have...the funds and we are working more towards having our energy spent on a year-round safe space campaign as opposed to just having the one-week party,” he said.
If you want to host a Pride Week event, let the group know and Villeneuve said they’ll promote it in their marketing.
To volunteer, or learn more send them an email.
To donate to Fierté Timmins Pride, check out their GoFundMe.
