by Kat Bradfield
The “College is a Drag…Show” recently hosted by PRIDE attracted quite a bit of attention, but there was more to the event than an entertaining and hilarious night of fun.
The show was PRIDE’s first fundraiser toward the new LGBTQA scholarship they are helping build.Over the next five years, Pride is trying to raise $25,000 for one deserving member of the LGBTQA community.
“It is an LGBTQA scholarship, so I mean, lesbian, gay, transgender, queer, questioning, ally, and so on,” Caleb Ray, President of PRIDE, said.
“It’s not just for people that are gay or lesbian or trans*. The way I see it, it’s for anyone who is very vocal and a leader in the LBGTQA community.”Ray is confident in the project’s timeline.
“I’m not sure if that’s five years from February or five years from the upcoming academic year, but $25,000 is easy to raise,” Ray said. “We just need to be focused on it. I’m sure we can with some grass roots efforts.”
PRIDE plans on putting on more large scale events, such as the drag show, as well as many smaller, more typical events such as bake sales, in order to raise the money. Ray also encourages any donations which come his way.
“People in the LGBTQA community going out and asking friends, family, and faculty, people like that, if they would want to donate,” Ray said. “Everyone can definitely get involved. It’s not just reserved for people in PRIDE.”
Clearly, Ray has a strong faith in his organization and its ability to raise the money, since it is only this year PRIDE has really become a positive group on campus.
“This previous summer, PRIDE was kind of going downhill,” Ray said. “There were no members, no nothing, and I was kind of given the opportunity to revamp it, and start anew.
We’ve been doing a lot of building, behind the scenes things, and haven’t gotten to do as many fundraisers as we’d like to do.”
They did, however, raise $250 in their first drag show, an event which prompted a large response on campus, and will undoubtedly be even bigger in coming years.
The scholarship itself was not PRIDE’s idea, though. “The idea was actually that of alumni Dan Coleman and faculty member Kay Coughlin,” Ray said.
“Angie Renner is our treasurer, and she had been contacted by Kay, who works over in Yochum. Just being involved in PRIDE people kind of come to you with things like that.”
“We were totally so happy to have that opportunity extended to us. They touched base with Angie first, and then Angie and I started discussing it, and then working with Kay and Dan, and here we are now.”
Despite the idea coming from outside the organization, all of PRIDE is extremely excited and taking the task seriously.
“This is kind of like our philanthropy,” Ray said. “Different organizations have different philanthropies they give to. This is kind of ours now.” The idea is nothing new.
“A lot of schools do have these types of scholarships set up,” Ray said. “Still, creating such a scholarship here is definitely a step in the right direction for Capital.
I always think Capital is so progressive in its ideals, thoughts, and values. We treat our staff who identify out of the norm with so much respect and dignity.
“I think it’s only time that we treat our students with just as much dignity by honoring in some way, and we can do that with this scholarship.
This only adds to the diversity so often talked about at Capital. I think it’s just another awesome thing to say about our campus.”
kbradfield@capital.edu
