Orlando – Save the Date! Come Out With Pride (COWP) 2014 is set for Oct. 11, which happens to be National Coming Out Day.
Mikael Audebert, executive director of COWP, said the slight date shift is intended to avoid a conflict with Yom Kippur, which was the same day as Orlando Pride in 2011.
“It upset some individuals,” Audebert said. “We made sure this time around we checked the dates and once again, the park programmed us on Yom Kippur.”
Audebert said moving an event that’s held at Lake Eola Park comes with a few challenges. First, American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Orlando and Fiesta in the Park had to agree to shift their schedules to accommodate. Secondly, Audebert said Lake Eola Park managers have strict rules about the grass, events must be spaced out so the grass has time to rest in between.
He said City Commissioner Patty Sheehan was instrumental in facilitating the change and Chris Wallace, Lake Eola’s park manger, did “a terrific job in making sure all parties understood the sensitivity of the matter.”
Audebert said COWP’s planning committee may also benefit from the change.
“I’m happy because it’s giving us one more week to plan,” he said. “That week can make a huge difference.”
2014 also marks anniversary of COWP.
“It’s not the 10th anniversary of pride in Orlando, it’s 10th anniversary of COWP when the MBA took over and made it into the event it is today,” Audebert said. “Pride has existed in Orlando since the 1990s.”
Organizers will be marking the occasion starting in January 2014, by each month celebrating a year of COWP, with the culmination during the 10th month, at the main event in October.
“Start next month we’re asking people to send us pictures and memorabilia, on the computer or physical,” Audebert said.
He said they plan to use those items to take a look back at previous Prides, previous board members and volunteers, and thank them.
