A love letter to a community coming together and those who make it happen
Matthew Danielson, Spokane Pride’s executive director, has a job that is much more involved than yelling “Happy Pride!” every chance he’s got. Matthew juggles sponsors, negotiating and encouraging everyone to stay involved and give as much as they can. He is swamped with emails and social media comments leading up to Pride, and somehow, he’s always got time to chat. He’s the bridge between the Pride Parade and the City/Parks/PD, always looking out for Pride participants and making sure they are as safe as possible. On Pride Day, he triages a million questions and suggestions from morning to evening, and amazingly he never snaps at anyone. Below is Matthew’s love letter and thank you to the folks behind the scenes.
Spokane Pride grew from just a small corner of Riverfront Park ten years ago when I first started helping with the event to the most joyous weekend of love and connection that Spokane has to offer, as well as being one of Spokane’s largest events. It is a fusion/blend/combination of community connection and group adulation like nothing I’ve ever seen. So much has gone into making this event what it is today, and I’d like to shine a light on those that make this event happen. It is so much more than just me, and I think that needs to have a spotlight, and I’d like to name names and show all the different aspects of coordinating this event.
Jake Schwartz is our Board President, always good for an inspirational speech and many other skills to help the organization in a wide range of ways. He sits on most of the committees with me and helps hold the thing together emotionally and logistically. I deeply appreciate his partnership in leading this organization.
Kassandra Forsman is our Board Vice President, and when she is not handling large logistics like backing trailers, she is doing nails for free in a corner of our community room at the SAN Pride Center. As a former combat marine, she brings a cool head and a laid-back charm to our org.
Jacob Beye is our Board Treasurer and is just so good at simplifying interpersonal issues into easy to digest plans of action that both parties can move forward with, in addition to bringing us to a whole new level of budgeting prowess as an organization.
Anna Brougher is our neurospicy teacher/secretary/parade coordinator extraordinaire. She has implemented new policies and structures that have made our parade a model of organization, even flexing those skills and volunteers to help with the road closure for the Nyne Block Party.
Shelby Ramey is our creative butterfly and is responsible for much of the better graphics (not the ones slapped together by me) that Spokane Pride produces, in addition to helping coordinate small events, and producing all of our custom merchandise for Spokane Pride and our smaller events.
Conar Durglo is our board member who looks over the Indigi’Q programming formerly the Two Spirit Powwow. He runs a crafting circle every week where they craft and plan their parts of the Pride festival. I am personally so proud of helping steward this programming in his partnership. I see this as Spokane Pride’s land acknowledgment in our commitment to right the wrongs of history and push forward to a more equal and loving world.
Dave Walton, board member, has been helping me with tech at gay events ever since I was hosting karaoke behind the bar at Irv’s longer ago than I like to admit, so naturally he had to follow me to Pride. He floats and fixes whatever tech issues we are having, and with an event with 8 locations doing sales, this is a hugely consequential role.
Val Walton, Dave’s mom and Board mom is Shelby’s assistant and partner in crime. Come to almost any pride event and you will be greeted by val. She is the queen of sales and has been a part of prides merch production for the last three prides.
Marieah De La Vega is Pride's second employee ever I’ve recently hired and has taken swiftly to vendor management and sitting at the center of the storm as Pride approached learning a ton and using her experience working events at Riverfront Park to make the many tasks of a looming event seem lighter and more manageable. I’ve been able to maintain a much healthier lifestyle as pride season came on because of many people here, but especially her.
Michael Stubor is our command center lead and has revolutionized our command and control systems for Pride. Since he started with us in 2023 the command center has provided a space for vendors, attendees, PD, Fire, Safety, etc.… to call one number to get centralized up to date info on the functioning of the event. This project is complimented by our logistics committee that oversees all the inner workings of the event.
Christina Thomas (Tommi) has become a lead for our entertainment committee and also a crucial task master for the logistics committee and sort of keeps all the meetings functioning smoothly while cataloging and capturing all the decisions and data gathered. She also sits in the command center at Pride aiding to the command and control structure especially from the entertainment perspective.
Justine Blair is a lead for the accessibility committee and is utterly focused on making Spokane Pride as widely accessible as it can be. She oversees the sensory zones, accessibility mats, ASL interpreters, accessibility stops, etc.… and has really helped make Spokane Pride a place for all!
Kimber and Marcia Ryburn, Sloan Poe, Maggie Maguire and the Trans Pride Committee in partnership with Trans Spokane planned the Rally for Trans Rights at Pride and also contribute to many other aspects of Pride and our community in various ways.
Derrick Leggott, Dixon Burkett, and all the rest of the tech crew set up, tear down, and run 5 stages at Spokane Pride with mostly our own or borrowed equipment. They also sit on the entertainment committee and help plan lineups and organize backing tracks and band info.
Dave Lenz sits on the logistics committee, entertainment committee, and is the events director for the Spectrum singers. He took the whole week of Pride off to help take care of a range of things leading into the event, then hosted the karaoke/open drag stage at Pride.
Kris Neuharth is the lead for the Peace Angels of Spokane and organizes the angels so they can safely and effectively block out the haters at Spokane Pride. She diligently takes care of the angels and peacekeepers keeping Pride a joyful and fun place and keeping the protestors in their place.
April Gascon/striker head of the brand new safety committee worked closely with logistics committee, park rangers, private security, PD, Pjals Peacekeepers, angels, AMR, etc.… to provide a more unified security plan and added high level contingency planning plus facilitating first aid training for our safety volunteers.
Joe Stussi and the Peacekeepers had their largest contingent of peacekeepers ever! They are especially trained for deescalation and first aid and are the people with the orange vests around keeping an eye on things during the events.
Thank you to Princess Dallas for getting all vendor documents and insurance info in order for vendors and parade entries in a kind, loving, but firm way.
Pia Hallenberg is a constant companion of Spokane Pride and sits in the command center to handle media relations and is always there for me to ask questions and get info with her deep knowledge of our community.
There are so many more committee members and past board members and volunteers, and I’d like to thank all of them for helping us get the event and this organization where it is now.
Big thank you to Stephanie Allen our new volunteer coordinator, she rocked this position and pulled some very long days at Pride this year.
Thank you to Purgatory for always taking such great pics and organizing photographers.
The lovely people from Black Bee Tattoo put together and organized the submissions for our art gallery in the pavilion and it was AWESOME, thank you!
Thank you to our 80 plus drag performers, especially TS Loveless , Crystal Marche, Mylar Black, and Ducky Loveless to just name a few.
Thank you to our 8 hosts, and 12 comedians keeping things light and fun in a family friendly.
Thank you to all of our sponsors that help pay for this growing event, especially the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, and Gonzaga University because I think the union of Pride and affirming churches are the best way to fight Christian nationalism and heal our society.
Thank you to our nearly 250 vendors, you made the park so beautiful with your wide-ranging offerings. Everyone was so happy about the offerings in the park.
Thank you to our 100 plus Parade entries, biking through the parade and yelling happy pride as everyone was lining up and leading the parade into the finish was truly one of the most beautiful moments I’ve ever had at a Pride and you all are a part of that!
Thank you to Odyssey and all of the GSA’s that marched under their banner and attended the Teen Zone!
I also cannot thank Lori from Riverfront Park enough; we are so trauma bonded after everything we’ve been through running this event together. We started the same year and we are always so good at rolling with the punches and chaos. Shout out to Megan and Sarah, the event specialists helping us too.
There are literally hundreds of volunteers that are going unnamed here, this event would not be possible without you. You bring organization, joy, and love to this event and make it possible. Thank you for being a part of this amazing weekend.
Thank you to EVERYONE who attended this event. You are a part of something larger than all of us. You are a part of the building love and equality that this movement and event represent. You are a part of connecting our community and collective healing that comes with the adulation of communal healing that comes from events like these.
