Adirondack North Country Gender Alliance Executive Director Kelly Metzgar amps the crowd up before the parade at Tri-Lakes Pride on June 30. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Adirondack North Country Gender Alliance wishes to thank everyone who attended, participated and most importantly volunteered their time and services to make our third annual Tri-Lakes Pride such a success!

Without your support, our community would be just another sleepy Adirondack North Country village! Tri-Lakes Pride surely “livens up” our summer programs and positively contributes to events that make our area such a special place to visit and live!

There are so many “thank yous” to share!

To all the organizations and individuals who donated very generously to cover the costs of hosting our event.

To the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, who promoted our event far and wide! Your promotional efforts greatly expanded our exposure to a wider regional audience, which greatly impacted the turnout of those who attended our Pride celebration this year!

BluSeed Studios, North Country Community College and town of Harrietstown, for use of tables and chairs and all the volunteers who set them up along with the tents, then helped to tear everything down afterwards.

To the Saranac Lake Police Department and Department of Public Works for traffic control and safety while in the park! A VERY SPECIAL shout out to DPW for having our streets ready for use by the parade goers!

To Pendragon Theater, who performed very memorable songs from their upcoming production of “The Marvelous Wonderttes” July 9-21 at their theater on Brandy Brook Avenue.

Johnna Macdougall — Soma Beats and Canoodlers.

Saranac Lake’s very own Lawn Chair Ladies with their chairs decked out in Pride colors!

Terri Hunter and her “Bubbles the Clown” offering balloon animals to attendees.

Joe Ferris and his wonderful caricatures of those brave enough to have the portraits drawn by his masterful hands!

Saranac Lake Youth Center, under the loving care and direction of Aleacia Landon, SLYC president and outgoing Director Alex Amel, the new center Director Tori Vasquez, for fashion show wardrobe! Our youth’s participation in our Pride celebration is truly very special and unique. The youth of our community make this so fun! Their joy, excitement and energy are so important!

Sean Brace, who coordinates our entertainment and Shawn Reed, who donates time, equipment and talents for music both live and recorded! Pride would be disappointing without the talents and skills of these two people!

Nick Friedman, our very creative website designer, photographer, videographer — (Adirondack Website Design, www.adirondackwebsitedesign.com). Nick’s creativity shines forth on the new website he recently created for us — https://adkncga.org. Website visitors will certainly want to view our “Photos and Videos” page to see all the fun from this year’s Pride. Be sure to visit Nick’s site as well as our own!

A very special “shout out” to our Pride Rain Dancers! Just as I assumed, disaster was about to strike with the dark clouds and heavy down pour of rain, people braved their “dryness” dancing to Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade” and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.” I enjoyed (Enterprise Staff Writer) Aaron Marbone’s comment: “This was a representation of the philosophy many of the LGBTQIA-plus people at the event talked about — no matter how much someone wants to rain on their parade, they said they’re going to dance anyway.” I was so happy to watch all the dancers turn a potential disaster into a joyous celebration of their Pride!

Lastly, an extra special shout out to Aleacia Landon, her son Michael and Cathy LeBlanc for retrieving, then returning, all the tables and chairs we borrowed from supporting organizations. Without their assistance, Pride would never happen! I could not have put this event on if it was not for their time and assistance! THANK YOU is not enough!

So dear readers, as the title for this piece above, “Pride does not happen in a vacuum!”

It took a lot of hard work from many people to pull this all together!

I hope you enjoyed our third annual Tri-Lakes Pride celebration!

Be sure to attend our ninth annual Adirondack North Country Pride at the end of September in Plattsburgh. More information on this Pride celebration is coming shortly!

Until next year — Happy Pride!

— — —

Kelly Metzgar is the executive director of the Adirondack North Country Gender Alliance. She lives in Saranac Lake.