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June 29, 2010

Check out this amazing article about PFY in The Bellmore Patch!

All of us here at Pride for Youth are honored to be the recipient of a generous donation from Frantic Fran’s cast of Rent, at the Showplace Theatre in Bellmore ! They raised $945.70 for us in such a short time. The cast also gave our kids a great opportunity to see the show and even participate in it! A special thanks to Erinn Furey, who spearheaded this project, and the rest of the cast for all their hard work and generosity. Check out the article here http://bellmore.patch.com/articles/cast-of-rent-show-playing-locally-donates-to-pride-for-youth

June 22, 2010

The Bellmore production of Rent partners with Pride for Youth

Pride for Youth participants has been given a wonderful opportunity this week. This past Friday we were lucky to have a visit from the Showplace Theatre of Bellmore cast of Rent. The cast of Rent is greatly supportive of Pride for Youth. We are grateful to have them as allies. At our coffeehouse this past Friday night the cast came to speak to our participants. As they spoke about Rent they drew strong parallels between what we do here at Pride for Youth and the message behind the play Rent. “No day but today” is a universal message that we can all use to greatly impact our lives no matter what our backgrounds are, or what our troubles are today. Our kids were also quite excited when they were given the opportunity to sing Seasons of Love on our very own stage with the cast. Pride for Youth is honored to be the recipient of a generous donation from the Rent production. They have already risen over $500 for Pride for Youth. They are also graciously giving discounted tickets to all of our participants, volunteers and employees of Pride for Youth and The Long Island Crisis Center. With the opportunity to buy tickets for $7 instead of $22 we are able to bring up to twenty of our kids to see the show this Thursday free of charge! So many times we are amazed by the support we receive. Pride for Youth would like to thank the Bellmore Cast of Rent for their strong support and the opportunities they have given to our kids. Also, a special thanks to Erinn Furey, who plays the part of Maureen in the show. She had a great, positive presence with our kids, and has spearheaded our partnership with the production. Please feel free to join us at the show. Many of our staff and participants will be at the show Thursday 6/24 at 8pm. Erinn Furey may have a little surprise for our kids, giving them the opportunity to get up on stage with the cast. This is not to be missed!

Long Island Pride Parade 2010 by Jill

Sunday June 13th marked the 20th anniversary of Long Island Pride. As we do every year, we rounded up many our participants and some high school GSA clubs (gay straight alliance) to attend this highly anticipated event! Everyone had a lot of fun on this very special day. If any of our readers haven’t experienced The Long Island Pride Parade I highly recommend attending next year. The day starts with a family friendly parade down Main Street in Huntington. You hear cheers coming from the crowd lined up on the street and a lot of chants from the marchers. There are smiles and rainbow flags everywhere as we all come together to celebrate the LGBT community. The parade ends in Hecksher Park where a festival is held. At the festival you will find many LGBT organizations at tables sharing their resources. And of course there is plenty of food and entertainment. I am proud to say that our participants have a lot of talent, and this showed at the festival when they performed on the stage. Up first we had Lorenzo singing a top R&B hit. Next we had Britney and Mary singing “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent. Then last but definitely not least we had The Princess Minaj Hatter Project with a well choreographed dance! Our kids did a great job up there and the crowd loves them. As the day rolled to an end you could feel the energy of Pride in the park. When you take the walk out of the park you have the opportunity to see a timeline tour consisting of pictures from Long Island Pride each year before. I always like to take a few minutes there to remember how different things were 15 years ago. We fought many struggles and hardships just to have one day a year we could be out and proud. But we have come a long way and today we don’t run into these issues as much anymore. Thank you to all who came to march with us, all that came as supporters and everyone who was there celebrating our pride with us. This huge amount of support from the community really does help our kids in more ways than I can say.

June 8, 2010

Long Island Pride Parade 2010 is right around the corner!

We are very excited for this year’s Long Island Pride Parade. This year marks the parade’s 20th anniversary. We have over 100 kids marching with us, and we are extending an invitation to Pride for Youth’s supporters to join our contingent as well. This Friday night at the Coffeehouse we are lucky to have Sandy Faison and Steve Henaghan come speak to the kids about Long Island Pride. Sandy is the Director and Executive Treasurer of the Long Island Pride Parade. Steve was one of the founders of the Pride Parade in 1990. He will speak to the kids about the issues they faced when they first started Pride and how it has evolved today. I hope you all can attend Long Island Pride this year. Please come visit our table in the park at the end of the parade. You can meet some of our staff and peer educators and check out our Pride merchandise. For a suggested donation of $20 you will receive your choice of a hat or a t-shirt. For a suggested donation of $30 you will receive both. Money raised helps us continue the valuable work we do in our community. We can’t wait to see you all there! For directions/map to the Parade gathering spot in Huntington, check out: http://www.liprideparade.com/

June 1, 2010

Pride for Youth’s Annual Drag Show by Jill

Throughout Coffeehouse history our annual drag show is always our biggest event of the year. Our show this year proved no different. Many of our participants dressed to impress, and there were a variety of memorable performances. The lovely MC Princess hosted the night. Aria performed “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid, and Macy J. performed “I Took The Night.” We even had our own Lady Gaga who danced to a medley of the pop diva’s hits. We can’t leave out our amazing Drag Kings. Mike, Tory and Lawrence sang “Somebody To Love” by Queen. Then, Mike and Tory were back on the stage again doing “Love Addict” by Family Force 5. We were also quite lucky to see Brian McD perform the classic hit “Back At One”. Ending the show we had a fabulous performance from Princess and our new super star Andromida Moon. Finally Princess showed off her belly dancing skills to the song “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire. Pride for Youth is proud to host this show each year. In my opinion the best part is that young people put everything together themselves and have the satisfaction of calling it their own and enjoying the success of their efforts.