August 2011
By Rick Bumgardner

Hello Kansas City.  We thought it might be a great idea for you to hear from us during the course of the year and so we begin this column and will add another one in the near future so that you can meet and hear from our directors.

As we begin planning for the 34th annual Pride Festival, I am so grateful for the voices within our community who do not hesitate to speak out.  It helps us learn, grow, focus, and move our LGBT community toward a better understanding of who we are.  Our meetings are held the at Spirit of Hope MCC at 7pm on the first Wednesday of the month in September, October, January, March and May.  Please join us and become an integral part of your community.  Start letting us hear your voice today....not in April or May after the decisions have been made.

We’re sharing our 2011 Show Me Pride profit and loss statement so you can see the results of our efforts, where and how the monies are spent, and compare the venue costs over the past three years.  We are an incredibly transparent organization, with nothing to hide.  We hope that this will better help you have an understanding of what happens within the financial workings of your Pride organization.

We’re also sharing the results of the community-wide forum that was hosted by the LGCCKC in an effort to consider various venues for next year's festival.  Six locations were chosen, with 10 attributes considered.  Those attributes were ranked with Accessibility, Cost, and Parking receiving the most weight over the other 7.  After determining if the locations were Good, Ok, or Bad in relation to those attributes, a point scale was devised and the results were tabulated.  As you can see, it became clear that the Power and Light District was the best venue for our festival. 

Finally, we’re sharing a list of cities around the US that do, or are beginning to have, street festivals.  We agree with the Get Equal organization that we need to build on the celebration aspect of the Pride Festival by incorporating political activism. This also is consistent with our mission statement (listed above under OUR MISSION). Given the political arena, and the movement afoot by the Michelle Bachmans of our nation, we need to stand up, be counted and be seen. We feel we will never accomplish this by sequestrating ourselves on a hillside, behind a fence, where we don't invite our city and community to come learn about us. 

By taking our festival to the city center this year, our efforts paid off in other areas besides the financial.  We had a partner, for the first time, who offered to help defray some financial costs of the festival inviting us to their venue.  “Inviting”....wanting us to be there, helping us financially.  In fact, Nick Benjamin said after the festival, “We were honored to have you here.” We saw rainbow banners hanging in the middle of our city and received a resolution from our Mayor and City Council (passed unanimously) resolving that May 29 - June 5, 2011 LGBT week in Kansas City.  We saw a mass of politicians come speak to us...more than in any of the ten years I have been associated with the festival.  We didn't have one incident of violence; our organization didn't have to appear in court to press or defend charges nor did we did take one person to the hospital for injury or heat exhaustion.  We were able to lower costs of booth rental, bringing in more exhibitors than we've had for three years.  We had the ability to charge just for entertainment, keeping the street festival and our local entertainers on Saturday free.  We heard our Health Departments proclaim how wonderful it was to be able to work in an air conditioned, private space, giving them an opportunity to provide more comprehensive tests and rapid HIV testing.  We heard organizations that gave out materials to our attendees say they ran out of materials for the first time in all their years of attending.  Exhibitor's sales went up this year.  We partnered with the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center to display the AIDS quilts, making them accessible for an entire month, not just 3 days.  We also participated with the Art Center in an educational program for youth in crisis.  We saw other businesses not associated with the festival directly participate by hanging rainbow flags, banners, making rainbow cupcakes, providing lunches for volunteers and movies for our youth.  The list goes on and on...

That doesn't mean we can't grow....improve.  We heard your voices cry for green space, so we have some exciting ideas to help incorporate that into the festival next year.  We want to continue to partner with our community, helping and hoping to incorporate all your ideas...to bring you the Pride Festival our city so deserves. 

Join us, won't you?  Again, we want to hear your voices.  Please let us hear now.  The first Wednesday in September, October, January, March and May at Spirit of Hope MCC at 7 pm.  In the meantime....be proud....each and every day knowing that you make a difference.

Rick Bumgardner is the President of Show Me Pride, LLC.  He can be reached at President@gaypridekc.com.

September 2011
Donnyel Gregory

Hello everyone,
I am Donnyel, your new Vice-President for Show Me Pride this year. It
gives me great pride to be hold this position. I want you to know that I am going to do
everything I can to give you the best Pride ever; however, to do that, I need your help
because this is your Pride Festival after all.

With that said, this is what I need from you. I challenge every one of you
to come out to our Pride meetings the first Wednesday of the month in October, January, March and May. This is where you can share what is on your mind about Pride. What is going on and what is not going on that needs to be. You also get to hear from us, your Pride board. We need to hear your voice to truly make this your Pride Festival. While this is a new role for me in the organization, I’m not new to this at all. I have been working and giving my time to Pride in many different roles over the past eight years and one thing never changes. People talk about what they did not see; did not have; or how things could have been. But most, if not all of those people never come to a Pride meeting and say one word about what they wanted to see at Pride and I would like that to change.

Therefore, I am asking each and every one of you to come out to a meeting.  Not just you, but ask a friend to come with you. Bring a loved one, family member, someone that is straight, Bi, Tri, pink, blue. I do not care what they are, if they have pride at all - bring them. We need to hear everyone’s voice. That way, maybe we can have some unity thru Pride. Hey, I like that... Unity through Pride. That could be a good theme for this year; however, that will be for you to vote on in the October meeting.

So I hope to see you all soon at a Pride meeting. We meet the first Wednesday of the
months in October, January, March and May at Spirit of Hope - MCC Church at 7 p.m.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and to visit our website,

Donnyel Gregory
VP of KC Pride

Donnyel Gregory is the Vice -President of Show Me Pride, LLC. 
He can be reached at vicepresident@gaypridekc.com.