Meet the People behind PrideFest: Rahn Anderson, Volunteer and Administrative Coordinator

How long have you worked with PrideFest?

This will be my third consecutive PrideFest in this capacity; I volunteered “many, many” years ago when things were simpler and smaller! [I also know that no volunteer coordinator has served more than one festival until I came along.]

What exactly do you do with PrideFest?
 

I solicit and place the volunteers for the festival.  In 2006, after just two weeks in my job, we had 90 volunteers “on paper.”  Not as many showed up to actually work the festival and we had “0” volunteers to help with the strike Sunday night!  In 2007, with a good record and a bunch of consistency under my belt, we had over 200 volunteers at the festival with another 20 for the parade; the Denver Dykes on Bikes worked as a group to assist with the strike Sunday night and it was a dream duty!  For 2008, we are looking for about 250 volunteers!
           
How did you come to be involved with PrideFest?
I joined the volunteer staff at The Center in early 2006 after retiring from 33 years of teaching English at Arapahoe High School in Centennial and enjoying some time off; but I felt isolated and non-productive so I put out several volunteer applications.  I remember The Center when it first started and when it was located on Williams Street, just north of Cheesman Park.  It had two rooms on the middle level of a three-story brownstone, one staff member [Phil Nash], one desk, one manual typewriter, one dial phone, and one mission!
After serving as a volunteer for three months and seeing this position sit empty for three months, I stepped forward and was hired!
           
What is your favorite part of PrideFest?
My favorite part of this festival is the very early morning hours, from 5am when we report until about 8am; I am amazed at the energetic and positive volunteers who show up that early “raring to go.”  The site is somewhat pretty with all the colors, the slow movement of setting up and the cooler temperatures.  It is also very, very quiet!
           
What is your most memorable PrideFest moment?
I have two most memorable moments:  the first year {2006} I did not wear my hat as often as I should have and I burned the right front side of my face and contracted sun poisoning.  This is not a happy memory but a very educational one!  Last year, I shared the joy of working with a transgender teenager [female to male] completing community service because of trouble with the coming out process.  Luke was so joyful and so energetic; he completed just under 40 hours across four days in his first truly “out” experience.  I learned so much from this person about giving and giving and giving in order to find!
           
Why is an event like PrideFest important to the GLBT community?
This event is important as a common gathering point and a celebration.  It does bring many diverse [and otherwise isolated] elements of our broad GLBTQQIA community together at one time with a generally agreed upon goal:  Let Us Be Seen As WHO We Are, not what and many times not even why.  It does give freedom for many to exploit the days [dressing in disregard for the general  populous, drinking to huge excess, and rowdy behavior] but at least we have that, when for many years we did not have it!