2024 Grant Application: Pride of Woodstock High Heel Race

Grant Overview

Please enter a brief descriptive name for this grant*

Pride of Woodstock High Heel Race

Briefly describe the purpose of the grant

The purpose of this grant is to cover the expenses for a High Heel Race scheduled for Saturday, June 1st ,2024 at 10:30am on Elm Street in the Village of Woodstock. This race is part of the Inaugural Pride of Woodstock weekend.

What is the total budget for the project for which you are requesting EDC support?

$4,375

How much funding are you requesting from the EDC?

$4,250

Applicant and Organization Information

Name of Applicant / Organization / Business

Pentangle Arts

Mailing address

31 The Green Woodstock, VT 05091

Name of Project coordinator

Seton McIlroy

Coordinator's email address

seton.L.mciLroy@gmail.com

Coordinator's telephone number

7,033,075,339

Organization's website

pentanglearts.org

Organization's EIN

03-0237947

If you are applying on behalf of an organization, describe the organization and its mission (if you are applying as an individual enter "None")

Pentangle Arts is the fiscal sponsor of Pride of Woodstock. The mission of Pentangle is not only to "provide high quality, affordable arts programming to our community", but also "to make a conscious effort to give voice to artists from many backgrounds and ethnicities. By seeking to provide more expansive and nuanced presentations, we hope to broaden the understanding of experiences while inspiring our community." Pride of Woodstock is a natural extension of this mission as it brings to the Woodstock community the art, experiences and voices of the marginalized LGBTQ+ community.

If you are applying on behalf of an organization, what is your annual organizational budget (if you are applying as an individual enter "None")?

$485,681.00

Project Description

Please provide a detailed description of the project

The Pride of Woodstock High Heel race is a fun, fabulous all-inclusive event representing our community’s diverse, accepting culture. The race is scheduled for Saturday, June 1st at 10:30am on Elm Street in the Village of Woodstock. Everyone participating in the race: male, female, non-binary, LGBTQ+, and straight, will wear high heels (e.g. pumps, platforms, wedges, stilettos, slingbacks) as they run, walk, saunter or sashay 148 meters from the crosswalk at the intersection of Elm and Pleasant Streets to the crosswalk in front of Gilligham's. Winners will be selected in 6 categories: 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers, Best Hair, Best Shoes, and Best Outfit. Pick up trucks will be parked at both the start and finish lines of the race to act as stages for the announcer and to play festive music. The street will be shut down from 9am -11am by the Woodstock Police at the intersections of Elm St. and River St., Pleasant St. and Benson Pl., and at Elm St. and Central St. Police and volunteers will direct traffic. Signs will be put out on Elm St and at the entrances to the Village on Rts 4 and 12 in the days leading up to the race to inform the public of the temporary closure. Additionally, we will send letters to the homes and businesses on Elm to let them know about the closure.

What is the timeline for the project (e.g. when will it be ready to start, when will it be completed,
are there important milestones along the way?

The planning for the High Heel Race and the rest of the Pride of Woodstock weekend began in the fall of 2023. Our committee has been meeting bi-weekly to plan, discuss and provide updates on the various aspects of the event. We recently had our permit to close off Elm Street for the race and our permit to hang banners on The Green approved by the Village Trustees. Our next milestones will be getting our website and race registration page live by January 26th. Once those sites are up, we will begin marketing the race locally and nationally. As members of the US Association of Prides, InterPride (International Pride Association) and by using Eventbright we can market to LGBTQ+ audiences seeking out Pride events.

What will success look like?

Success for the High Heel Race will be at least 50 registered participants and 100 spectators. Just as importantly, we expect to have broad community support and involvement. Throughout the Pride of Woodstock weekend, we expect to bring in 500 visitors who normally would not visit Woodstock.

Project Budget

Please provide a link to a spreadsheet that shows the project's budget, using the format as indicated in this example

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NRCKFWz3b26KJNxHNNcGwV-dzqhxas3BspmYmm830mw/edit?usp=sharing

Please confirm that no in-kind expenses are included in the budget spreadsheet

Confirmed

If there are any explanations you would like to provide to help us better understand the project budget spreadsheet
please enter them here

N/A

Community Support

Is there a "project champion" who strongly supports the project?

The Pride of Woodstock Committee is made of 12 community members including Village Trustees, employees of The Woodstock Inn, municipal employees, parents and small business owners and employees.

Describe the level of community support for this project

Prior to officially starting to plan the High Heel Race and the Pride of Woodstock weekend, our committee spoke to local businesses, houses of worship, elected officials, non-profits, new residents, longtime residents, students, parents and grandparents. I am happy to report that a vast majority of people responded positively and are supportive. The Chamber of Commerce is helping us with logistics and promotions. The Woodstock Inn is hosting multiple Pride events throughout the weekend. Multiple religious leaders have expressed interest in holding services to welcome LGBTQ+ locals and visitors. Zack's Place is planning to host their annual "Free Lunch" cookout to welcome the LGBTQ+ community to Woodstock. Additionally, the Woodstock High School Queer Straight Alliance has volunteered to help during the weekend.

Questions and Responses

Question: Do you have a plan to market the event not only to attract visitors, but also (perhaps after the event) to report on the event to the press (beyond Woodstock) and online, to help make clear that Woodstock is a welcoming place to live? Can you describe this plan? (submitted by Jon Spector)

Response: We plan to market the High Heel race (and all of Pride of Woodstock) regionally by sending out press releases posting on social media with LGBTQ+ audiences in Boston, Burlington, Manchester, Provincetown, New York and DC. We made a strategic decision to integrate the Pride of Woodstock online presence into the woodstockvt.com website to make is easy to cross link with Woodstock businesses and the already built out "Move Here" content. Additionally, as we more businesses and organizations schedule events and actions to coincide with Pride, visitors will see how welcoming our community is to the LGBTQ+ community.

Question: It appears from the budget that was submitted that you are asking the EDC to cover 97% of the costs of the event, and the event producers (is this Pentangle) will reeive 100% of the revenue and therefore make a profit of about $2,000. Is this intentional, or perhaps am I reading the budget numbers incorrectly? If your submission is correct, would you consider dedicating the revenues to help cover the costs of the event and requesting $2,000 less from the EDC? (submitted by Jon Spector)

Response: Pentangle is the fiscal sponsor of Pride of Woodstock but will not be receive any profits. Any money raised after expenses for the race will be donated to one or more LGBTQ+ Youth organizations in Vermont.

Question: If you were awarded the grant how would you plan to recognize the contribution made by the EDC (so the community can better understand the types of investments we are making in economic and commmunity development)? (submitted by Jon Spector)

Response: If we were awarded a grant from the EDC, we would recognize you as we will other donors and sponsors. This includes a name/logo on the race t-shirt, on the website, in advertising and at the High Heel race. Additionally, we would include the EDC in press releases and media interviews. It's important to the committee that the High Heel race and all of Pride of Woodstock is organized and supported locally.

Question: Great idea. Should I assume you will give away T shirts to the 50 plus participants? With a $2000 T shirt budget you apparently anticipate a T shirt excess...will you sell those and possibly reduce the cost of this event? (submitted by Larry Niles)

Response: We will be giving away t-shirts to each of the race participants. As this is our first year, we are not sure how many people participants to expect and wanted to plan on getting more shirts in case additional people register. We are open to selling any extra shirts to reduce the the cost of the event.