Ferndale Ready to Celebrate its 'Biggest Pride Ever'

FERNDALE — A larger festival footprint, more vendors and performers, and more related events are planned this year as Ferndale Pride returns for its sixth year on Saturday, June 4. More than 100 vendors, as well as eight bands, disc jockeys and other performers, will converge on downtown Ferndale for the annual street fair. In addition to the festivities on West Nine Mile Road between Woodward Avenue and Planavon Street, the street fair has expanded to include a portion of West Troy Street near Allen Street.
"This is our biggest Pride ever," said Julia Music, event chair for Ferndale Pride. "We've increased our footprint to Troy Street. More space will make it more comfortable for the crowd and allow more booths and food trucks."
Music has been the event chair for Ferndale Pride for three years now. "I founded the event with Craig Covey, Greg Pawlica and Monica Mills in 2011," she said. "Craig has been a mentor to me since I was 16 years old. So it just got to a natural transition point where I was ready (to take the lead) and he was ready to pass the event on."
It takes over 100 volunteers to produce Ferndale Pride. "It's a great group of volunteers," said Shawn Starkey, who volunteers as the logistics coordinator. "There's a lot that goes into to putting on Ferndale Pride. We have someone who coordinates all of the volunteers, we have someone who handles fundraising, we have a treasurer, we have someone who handles our IT, social media, that kind of thing, someone who's in charge of entertainment. That's a huge job. Then you have Julia who is chair of the whole thing and works all year round on this."
Starkey first started volunteering three years ago. "I decided I wanted to become more involved in the community," he said of his first year helping out. "I really enjoyed it, and at the volunteer appreciation event a month or so later I asked if there was anything else I could do and they said they were looking for a logistics coordinator."
Alyssa Atkinson was working with Covey when she decided she wanted to help out. "I went to him and said, 'I really want to help with Ferndale Pride this year, so how can I do it?' she recalled. "He told me to speak with Julia. I did and the stars just really aligned, and the first time we met we just hit it off. She told me she was looking for a fundraising coordinator. They had a few fundraisers in place when I started and then we created some new ones and I just really ran with it."
It hasn't all been easy though. "It's been a challenge at least in getting sponsors because marriage equality is a reality and a lot of kind, very generous sponsors thought that was what we were fighting for exclusively," Atkinson explained. "So now that it's here, I think a lot of people think the fight is over."
Atkinson also said that the fact that Ferndale is such a generous city also, ironically, sometimes complicates things. "The hard part is that everybody in Ferndale is trying to raise money for something," she said. "So there is a problem I think with saturation. You go knock on somebody's door to ask for money and they've already been asked three times that day."
But Atkinson isn't complaining and she's been undeniably successful in her efforts. So far she has raised almost $10,000 for the event. Music said Atkinson was an inspiration to others and that all of Pride's volunteers are special people.
"We have a lot of volunteers who want to attend Pride but they also want to serve the community," said Music. "And because we have so many volunteers, we're able to give more money to charity and people appreciate that. If we didn't have so many volunteers we'd have to hire more staff. And it's wonderful, because at the end of the year we get to give money to our five charities."
The charities that Ferndale Pride awards money to include Affirmations, FernCare, the Ferndale Community Foundation, Matrix MAC Health and Transgender Michigan. But it could be argued that everyone who attends benefits from Ferndale Pride; the camaraderie, the fellowship and the fun.
"It's a ton of fun," Atkinson said. "You put a lot of work into it and sometimes you don't want to do it anymore because it's so much work and you're just a volunteer. Then the day of the event comes and it's like you're on drugs. You feel high. And it's like, 'This is it. This is what it was all for.'"
Starkey said it's the people that make Ferndale Pride what it is. "I think it's all the different kinds of people that come together to make the event happen, and those that come to the event, that makes it so special."