After graduation, most seniors look forward to a fun-filled summer, but not Eryn Harris. In June 2020, just weeks after accepting her diploma and amid the nationwide shutdown due to COVID-19, Eryn setup the first ever Flagler County LGBTQ+ Pride March.
Just 10 days prior to the four-year mark of the Pulse attack, Eryn (17 at the time) began an aggressive social media campaign to promote the event and gather resources. She coordinated with the local nonprofit “Find Your Peace by Pieces” to help advertise to a broader audience and communicate the message of peace in our community through love and acceptance.
After Eryn planned the march route, she coordinated efforts with the Flagler Beach Police Department and the Flagler County Sherriff’s Office to ensure a safe and peaceful event even in the socially conservative bastion of Flagler County. Measures were enacted by the Sherriff’s Office to monitor social media and prepare for any counterprotests that might have flared up.
Eryn delegated tasks to members of the local LGBTQ+ support group, planning for a local DJ to have a sound system available in Flagler Beach’s Veterans Park where the destination of the support march was set to happen. Eryn made sure the local news media was aware of the event to provide coverage of the march. Even the Flagler Beach Fire Department was onsite, hoisting an enormous rainbow flag some 90 feet into the air at the park.
On the day of the event, the local health department came out to provide free coronavirus testing for anyone that wished to participate. Many local political candidates who support the preservation and expansion of LGBTQ+ protections were onsite talking to members of the community and there were even Flagler County election officials present to help people register to vote.
In total, the event was attended by several hundred people all decked out in their favorite pride attire. It was an amazingly successful event and a fitting tribute to the people who lost their lives in the Pulse nightclub shooting just four years prior. Eryn’s efforts showed that hate will never triumph so long as there is love. Eryn has shown that even during a pandemic, with little time to plan and organize, an event described by some as “life-changing” can occur. The power to promote change is possible for one person, and Eryn exemplifies the best in what we should be.
In addition to Eryn’s planning of the first Flagler County LGBTQ+ Pride March, Eryn used her position as the head of the media club at Flagler-Palm Coast High School to build support for the local effort to add gender Identity protections to the Flagler County School District’s nondiscrimination policy. She used her contacts throughout the school to bring students and parents to local school board meetings where they could voice their support for the inclusive language being requested.
Eryn also provides youth insight to the local LGBTQ+ support group known as the LGBTQ+ Community of Flagler County where she helps plan events for local LGBTQ+ teens and adults to gather and share joy and fellowship in an area that can seem quite resistant to the LGBTQ+ community.
Eryn is currently attending Flagler College as a freshman majoring in media and film studies, allowing her to continue her efforts in lifting the local LGBTQ+ community. It’s no surprise that she already sees a second annual Flagler County LGBTQ+ Pride March in the future.
To view the full list of Watermark’s Most Remarkable People of 2020, click here.
