Update on Covid-19 - April 7, 2020

We at Reading Pride Celebration have been monitoring the Covid-19 pandemic closely, and like you we are staying home, staying safe, and staying healthy. This outbreak has changed many things for many people, but has not changed our resolve in bringing you the best Reading Pride Celebration we have ever had.

To help keep us and our members safe, we have moved our monthly, and planning meetings to a virtual platform and have been discussing how this pandemic will affect Pride this year. At this time any plans to cancel our pride event which is scheduled for July 19th, 2020 would be premature. We have been watching the news coverage closely and see events being canceled across the country; however with the stay in place order set to expire on April 30, 2020, we are hopeful that our event in July will not be affected. As such we are still accepting vendor and sponsorship applications. All application should be submitted through our website @www.readingpridecelebration.org

With that said our largest fundraiser each year “An Evening at the Stirling” is still set to be held on May 15th, 2020. This event helps to ensure that we raise the funds necessary to cover the expenses of our Pride event. Tickets can be purchased through our Facebook page. We are also in need of donations for our silent auction. If you would like to donate, please reach out to us at readingpridecelebration@gmail.com

With regard to our bus trip to NYC’s Pride, at this time NYC Pride is still planning to hold their Pride parade, and we are hopeful that the spread of Covid-19 will be under control in NYC by then so that we can still attend. Those tickets can all be found on our webpage.

Lastly, we had mentioned in our newsletters our hopes of hosting monthly events to bring our community together and celebrate Pride all year round. Sadly this virus has forced us to cancel many events. We however, remain hopeful and committed to our community, and bringing us together. With that in mind we are proud to host Saturday evening virtual social hours, every Saturday for as long as the stay at home order is in place. It’s important to socialize but more important to stay healthy, and at this time staying healthy, means staying home. Thanks to the magic of Zoom, you don't have to be alone, so grab a drink, snack, or whatever you’d like and join us on Saturdays evenings. Each week we will try to bring something different to our social hour, so follow us on Facebook and IG for updates.

We know that this has been a hard time for all of us, but we are confident that we will get through this. We are “Strong Enough”. We look forward to seeing you on our social hours, and at our future events.

Until then, Be safe, Be Strong, Stay Proud, and celebrate who you are each day