About Us | NEPC Board | Letter from Chair

LETTER FROM CHAIR

Friends and Allies of the LGBTIQ Community in Newark,

Today I ask for your help to support Newark-Essex Pride Week 2010, the fifth annual LGBTIQ pride celebration in Newark. Newark-Essex Pride Week provides a valuable service in Newark and for the people of the Greater Newark region. You can make a difference in this community.

Why support Newark-Essex Pride Coalition (NEPC) and Newark-Essex Pride Week?

Because this is the right place to make a difference. Newark is a great city and its LGBTIQ community is strong. I assure you that with the help of this great team, other prominent leaders in this community and the many eager volunteers from Newark and the surrounding area that have shown commitment to this community, that NEPC and Pride Week will see its greatest year in 2010. This is the right time to make a difference. Our community chooses not to be dismayed by this recession and is uniting around a common vision and our recent landmark achievements. This is a new day for NEPC and the community. NEPC will rise this year and so too will this community, but help is needed from everyone, including you.

NEPC is the right organization to make a difference. NEPC can now claim 501c3 status and has set up its Board of Directors, a body that continues to grow with talented and passionate leaders from the community. NEPC has great momentum from our previous achievements. Newark-Essex Pride Week in 2008 included the first-ever LGBTQ Pride Parade in Newark and the first awards banquet to celebrate the achievements of some of the many leaders in our community. The week also featured a diversity of events from a 5k walk/run to an examination of civil union laws to an all day conference on religion and human sexuality.

Newark is unique among cities with pride events for our focus on events that go beyond entertainment but include recreation and critical dialogue. This year we will continue that trend and build on our precedents. With a focus this year on strengthening our core events and expanding our outreach efforts, 2010, which is the five year anniversary of the week, will be Pride's largest and most successful year yet.

NEPC needs your help to make a difference. Please give to NEPC. Become a sponsor at one of our sponsorship levels and receive benefits including access to NEPC’s networks, tickets to Awards Reception and an ad in our Pride Guide magazine.

Our goal is to raise a humble $25,000. This is an achievable target, but not without your help. Each of us can contribute something and each of us knows someone who can contribute something. NEPC’s success depends on this community and its allies uniting for this great cause.

Fundraising Goals for Newark-Essex Pride Coalition and the 2010 Pride Week Events:

Please give today. As little as $5 will help. A donation of $35 or more will get your name listed as a donor in the 2010 Pride Guide Magazine and a donation of $100 will also get you or your organization a 1/4 page ad in the magazine and two tickets to our Awards Reception. Donations can also be anonymous.

Our March Campaign raised nearly $1,000 in individual donations from our members and people within the community, and we have secured some institutional pledges. Our April Campaign will determine the scope and extent of our events in June. We must raise an additional $5,000 from personal contributions and an additional $4,500 in institutional pledges this month in order to proceed with our programming as planned.

We are also accepting donations of Silent Auction items. Please contact newarkessexpride@gmail.com or call 732-688-7953 to donate an item for the auction.

You can send a check made out to Newark-Essex Pride Coalition to the following address, or beginning on April 1st can donate online through PayPal by clicking here.

Newark-Essex Pride Coalition
POB 6205 Vailsburg Station
Newark, NJ 07106

Please contact me for more information, to give input, to ask how else you can help or to voice concerns: newarkessexpride@gmail.com or 732-688-7953.

Thank you for helping strengthen the LGBTIQ community in Greater Newark and Essex County!

Best Regards,
Yoland Hamilton
Chair, Newark-Essex Pride Coalition