Salinas Valley Pride Celebrations creates spaces for LGBTQ+ people through social events, community partnerships and a scholarship program with the goal of making the Salinas Valley a more inclusive place to live, work and visit.
Salinas Valley Pride Celebrations (SVPC) envisions a thriving and inclusive community where LGBTQ+ individuals can express themselves freely and access essential resources. Our 15th annual Pride Celebration is more than just an event; it’s a vital hub offering rapid HIV testing, Monkeypox vaccinations, and specialized medical assistance for transgender individuals. It also provides a dynamic platform for local LGBTQ+ artists, performers, dancers, and drag performers to showcase their talents and connect with the community. Additionally, the event brings together local queer-supporting businesses and organizations, creating a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community to access vital resources such as mental health support, queer-supportive churches, queer-owned businesses, college resources, housing resources, and rape crisis organizations. Your support also funds our growing LGBTQ+ scholarship program and ongoing outreach events like "Pride in Our Parks," a queer volunteer day improving local state parks while fostering community bonds.
I am so grateful for Salinas Valley Pride Celebrations’ organizing team’s focused creative spirit and energy. Their ever evolving strategizing in reaching out to the whole Salinas Valley community, too often neglected by Peninsula focused groups, prioritizes accommodating the full participation of our friends in the small towns stretching down our long valley. Salinas Valley Pride Celebrations further bridges the Salinas Valley with the Monterey Peninsula with a Rainbow Directory of local services to serve the whole Salinas Valley. Businesses have responded positively, enabling SVPC’s budget to prioritize giving back to the community by providing multiple college scholarships of $2000 each. Student recipients have expressed their gratitude by sharing their future plans and eliciting more support for SVPC. Further outreach now includes coordinating with Cal Parks Foundation in communal plantings to help the native plant life of the Fort Ord Dunes. SVPC’s creative spirit and energy is contagious!
- Edith Frederick
