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Members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and their allies marched down the streets of Steinbach for the 2023 Steinbach Pride March.
Chris Plett, Tammie Martens and Charli Champagne of the Steinbach Pride Board had many people join them in the festivities at the K.R. Barkman Park on Sunday afternoon.
In addition to the march, there was live entertainment, guest speakers sharing their experiences and even dinosaurs.
Martens says they had ten different vendors, along with around 14 volunteers on site. Vendors sold shirts, tumblers and other items. There were also information booths and people handing out pride pins, flags and stickers.
Plett is grateful for the “great and overwhelming” reaction and turnout.
“Building up to it, it's always a huge amount of stress and then it just sort of starts happening and you just chase it down the hill and then you're so happy when it's all done. It's so amazing to see this many people show up,” Plett says.
Martens says the Pride March takes “months and months of planning and coordination.”
“It's funny because normally, we do actually have a tremendous amount of stress leading up to the event. And this year, even though the climate in the province and in the country has kind of changed and we should be more stressed, I actually found that this year was less stressful for us. We have a really good board, and it was just really cohesive the way we were working together, and it seemed to pull together easier than most," Martens explains.
Champagne adds Steinbach Pride will continue to be present in the community.
“We have plans, nothing confirmed and nothing we're going to give away at the moment, but we want to do more community engagement events,” Champagne explains. “We did have our trivia pub night leading up to Steinbach Pride. We were at Summer in the City. We were at Pride Winnipeg, and we want to carry that momentum through the next year up into Steinbach Pride 2024. Stay tuned for all of the fun and amazing things we have planned for the next year.”
Speaking of fun and amazing things, Wendy’s Show Us Your Summer is now on! This week, show us you and your family keeping it cool for a chance to win $400 off any service from Brown’s Plumbing and Heating.
We are also giving away golden tickets, your entry for a brand-new trailer from Steinbach Trailers and RV! How to enter? Find us at an event and take a selfie with us or find the trailer and take a selfie with it, then scan the QR code and submit your photo there!
Keep checking SteinbachOnline and listening to our radio stations to find out where we’ll be next weekend and to not miss out on any chances to win big!
Check out the TikTok and the photos from the event:
@steinbach_online Sights and sounds at the Steinbach Pride March #fyp #manitoba #steinbach #pride #pridemarch ♬ original sound - SteinbachOnline