San Diego Pagan Pride 2008 - Another Great Event
San Diego Pagan Pride Day 2008 is over, but we’re still glowing! The weather was perfect and we had an estimated 500-600 in attendance! It was wonderful seeing everyone come out, pitch up their awnings, picnicking and hanging out. One of our favorite things was all of the children running around, playing games (provided by El Cajon Pagan Family & Friends and Spiral Scouts) and laughing.
We started out the day with a ritual facilitated by Coast Oak ProtoGrove, our much beloved San Diego Druid circle followed by a morning open drum circle, lead by CJ of the Drum Dogs, to get the mood flowing. Our mid-day ritual was an Apache Naming and Blessing ceremony where about 150 people received their Apache names! Our afternoon entertainment included Wendy Rule (yes, all of the way from Australia!), Peruvian songstress Talia Morales, Sheela-Na-Gig and Maha Dansari. The closing ritual was a much anticipated spiral dance, facilitated by Talamh Ruel.
We had workshops that were well attended all day long and our vendors seemed to be going non-stop. SDPP sends out a big thank you to our workshop presenters Donald Michael Kraig, John & Bryan of Coast Oak ProtoGrove, Karen Tate, Tony Mierzwicki, Jamie Martinez Wood, Michael Walker and our own Naughty Faery!
The day ended with the annual door prize drawing, which everyone loved. We had so many prizes donated, including the piece de’ resistance, a huge basket full of Green Witch type stuff donated by The McVey/Young family.
We raised money for our charities; Mama’s Kitchen & the San Diego Humane Society, awarded our first scholarship of $655.00 to Karina Young and presented our first Community Service Award to Rick Carlson, a well known and much loved elder in our community who transitioned to the Summerland a few weeks ago. Darlene Fuller, his partner of nearly 20 years, was on hand to accept the award in his honor.
All in all, the day was a complete success and we couldn’t have pulled it off without the help of our tireless volunteers: Alan, Hope, Suzie, Heather, Cari, Jennifer, and our new volunteers Sonja and Linda.
Now we take a month off to catch our breath and then we’ll be back at work, producing another great event for next year, already scheduled for September 12th, 2009.
Thank you to everyone who came and helped, had a great time, added your wonderful energy and just for being you.
Much love,
Your San Diego Pagan Pride 2008 Coordinators
Valera, David & Ed
P.S. - Don't forget our annual wine tasting at Wine Steals on February 28, 2009. This year we are going to be at their Liberty Station location, more room and plenty of parking.