Letter from Brian
On behalf of myself and the Central North Carolina Pagan PrideDay Committee, I would like to say "Thank You" to everyone who
attended our event, preformed, vended and lead a workshop. Our
Pagan Pride Day 06 has truly turned out to be the best one yet. We
were blessed with excellent weather. "Thank the Gods!" We had a
record breaking attendance of over 600 people and collectively
donated 857 pounds of non-perishable food for the Food Bank of
Central and Eastern NC. Our day kicked off with a great opening
ritual by Dragons Cauldron And finished with an illuminating
closing ritual by our PPD staff.
As the coordinator of this event I personally couldn't be
happier with how PPD 06 turned out and I especially owe a debt of
gratitude to all our PPD staff who have spent many months helping
with the organizing and planning of our event. I want to start my
special "Thank Yous" with my brother in the Royal Order of the
Knights of Herne. Chris, Thanks for being my right hand and doing
all that behind the scenes work that helped keep things going. I
salute you "Master of the PPD Minions" . To my beautiful wife Lydia
and Samantha Martin, Thank You for developing and running an
excellent youth activities area that tied so well into our elemental
theme this year. To Erica, I owe you so many Thanks for wearing so
many hats this year. You did a wonderful job juggling your roles as
vender coordinator and director of charitable activities. Our
overall layout of venders and booth spaces worked well and we even
had maps to point people in the right direction. You and Michelle
did a great job with the auction as usual. Michelle, Thank You for
your great workshop lineup and working out the scheduling. Your
communication skills and attention to detail have been a great
blessing to our group. Ric, Thank You for lining up a wonderfully
diverse collection of performers. Definitely our best line up yet.
Paul, Thanks for keeping an eye on things and having your first aid
kit at the ready. Beth, Thanks for the filming and photography.
Maybe next years PPD will be able to have its own commercial.
Everett, Thanks for the photos, the closing ritual images look
great. Johnson, you did an awesome job with our web-sight . You came
in at a time when we needed you and worked your magic. Thank You,
Beth Owl's Daughter and Dragon's Cauldron for a wonderful opening
ritual, Phenix, Priest of the flame, You shined like a star in our
closing ritual. So glad your back :)
The current PPD staff and I have already started working on PPD
07. You will notice our web-sight has already started to change and
will evolve, as the details for PPD 07 start to solidify. The focus
of our next PPD committee meeting will be an evaluation of PPD 06
and developing a vision for PPD 07.
WE NEED YOUR HELP! If you have any comments or suggestions please
send them to me at brianmrose@northsta
helping with the planning of next years PPD contact me at the same
address. We need people who care about PPD to step up and make a
difference. Many of you probably don't know this, When I took on the
role as Local Coordinator, I was recovering from being in the worst
car accident of my entire life. My jaw was wired shut and I was in a
wheel chair. Richard had said he wasn't going to be able to do PPD
any more because his new store needed to get up and running. I told
him I would do it only if he couldn't find anyone else. Two months
went by and no one had stepped up to make PPD happen so I did, with
the assistance of a cane. In a few weeks I had set up a new Central
NC PPD Committee. We had two months to make PPD 05 happen we met
every other week and developed a whole new program. By the day of
PPD 05, I had re-trained myself to walk and talk a bit better and
Central NC PPD 05 turned out to be a good event. PPD 06 had its
challenges too for our committee members. Lydia and I were in a car
wreck (about one year and one month since the first one) we got
married (Lydia had to go down the isle on crutches) and we bought
and moved into a new house. We lost committee members because of
unfortunate life circumstances and other members have had to contend
with other personal hardships. Through all this we, The Central NC
PPD Committee never lost focus on making our PPD 06 the great event
that it was. I tell you this in order to show how even those of us
who might not be in the best life situation can make a positive
difference. Right now we need people to step up and say "I'll help!"
We need volunteers. None of us get paid to do this we do it because
we feel its important to keep Central NC PPD going. Our event is the
one time a year when Pagans from both the Triad and the Triangle
come together in a show of solidarity, for the values of religious
tolerance and personal freedom which we all hold dear. Our event
helps people connect and feeds the hungry. This is important work we
do and we need all the help we can get.
Brightest Blessings To You All,
Brian M. Rose
Central NC PPD Coordinator
Previous page: Festival 2005 - Closing Ritual
Next page: Festival 2006
