(Photo by Luis Salazar)
SARASOTA | Project Pride held its fourth annual Grand Carnival May 31, a precursor to Pride Month supporting the nonprofit’s mission.
This year’s event was themed Palm Royale. Organizers provided impressive décor, light bites, cocktails and an evening of dance led by headliner John Duff.
“I’m always happy to be in Florida and always happy to be doing my thing,” the entertainer shared. “For all people [who are] a part of this movement, it is an individual effort to show up as yourself and offer what you have … so it feels good.”
Project Pride also announced Justyn Hunter-Ceruti as the organization’s new board president. He told Watermark Out News that he wants to expand programming to reach even more marginalized communities throughout Sarasota and Manatee counties.
“I want Project Pride to be a center, something that has more programs that we can connect with more people on a day-to-day level,” he shared. “We have an office space and a space that we could host folks, so we are getting there. We just need to partner with the right folks in town, but we also have to connect with other organizations that could help facilitate those interactions with people.”
Harry Cicchetti, Project Pride’s new vice president, echoed Hunter-Ceruti.
“We want to provide more programming,” he said. “It’s great that Project Pride has different events throughout the year, but I think it’s also important to have programs to support the various communities in the LGBTQ+ community and we need to make sure we represent every letter in that that acronym.”
Watermark Out News was on hand to celebrate LGBTQ+ Sarasota. View our photos below.
Additional reporting and photos by Luis Salazar.
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