Celebrating Pride in Chesterfield

Celebrating Pride in Chesterfield

Central Co-op attended Chesterfield Pride on Sunday, 21st July, 2024, at Stand Road Park, one of the biggest LGBTQ+ events in the country. With another star studded line up of acts and a great number of charities and organisations promoting exclusivity and supporting networks. Colleagues from across the business came to support our stand from retail, funeral and our Northern Membership & Community Council members.

Our stand included an interactive workshop, provided by the talented Marie from Scraggy Moo, creative arts specialist, where people were encouraged to make a picture of themselves and share on the balloon frame. There is something quite pure and natural about creating art from the soul and everyone from young children, teenagers, young adults and adults all got involved and shared their images. The community art installation reflected the vibrancy and beauty of people, giving them the freedom to create a portrait in any style they desired!

Chesterfield Pride offered a variety of music from Liberty X, Kitty Scott Claus and Amelle plus many more talented acts. Seeing people either sitting enjoying the music, dancing and having a good time was joyful to watch. Music is also a great therapy to enable us to relax and take in the moments.

We also met up with Samaritans, who will be our new Society Charity, so it was exciting to catch up and see what events we could do together.

We have been attending Chesterfield Pride for some years now and this year as well as the art we had a small wheel where people could win either a Malawi Coffee Bag, Tea Bag or a piece of fruit. This was a great way to promote our Fairtrade and Malawi projects and talk to people about our point of difference. We also had materials to support our work with Oxfam and the range of materials we sell in store. The flags and stickers are always a hit and it was such an enjoyable day working with our colleagues and members but seeing everyone having a great time is always joyful.

Blog by Tanya Noon, Member & Community Relations Officer