Chris Banks and Kent Phillips from OurFest, with Hannah Rossiter from GenderBridge Two community charities have benefited from $1,452 raised by Auckland's OurFest 2010 Awards Night. The proceeds have been distributed evenly between GenderBridge and Body Positive. "In a difficult economic climate, we're pleased to have created an event that brought different strands of our communities together to celebrate our achievements," says OurFest chair Kent Phillips. Phillips believes the event and festival can be built on in years to come. He acknowledges the "understandable scepticism in the community" about the festival, citing the rocky legacy of Hero and subsequent events which he says have arguably not lived up to expectations. "It's difficult to please everyone, but the fact that any money was raised at all by an Auckland GLBT festival is something to be celebrated. The success of the awards night and other recent events such as the Big Gay Day have shown that our communities can pull it off," says Phillips. Body Positive CEO Bruce Kilmister says the organisation is delighted to be a joint recipient of the proceeds from the awards night. He is congratulating the OurFest team for its boldness in undertaking the project. "If it wasn't for such initiatives and community support such as this, we would not be able to provide all of the services we do. We offer our heartfelt thanks to all those who contributed to what everybody has agreed was a fabulous event." Jaimie Veale from GenderBridge says the donation will assist it in supporting transgender people in Auckland, as well as their friends and family. "We would also like to thank the team of OurFest volunteers for putting in a lot of hard work to make OurFest 2010 a success for our community." The OurFest team says it has taken on board feedback from this year's awards night and festival and looks forward to announcing plans for OurFest 2011 later in the year. "If anyone has any further suggestions, feedback, or would like to come on board to help with next year's festival - be it in a voluntary sponsorship capacity - please get in touch with us," says Phillips.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 30th April 2010 - 10:54am