To begin my blog post, I’ll resume where I left off last week. Last Saturday I traveled to Athens, Ohio to assist with tabling activities as well as to learn and observe the role Equitas occupies at pride events. The parade was small but very fun, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the large turnout of attendees. I took mostly a backseat in observing how Equitas operates at these events – watching how employees and volunteers doled out critical prevention and educational information to those interested.

I found it interesting observing the other tables and organizations present at this pride. They were all local and small, with a significant portion of them being faith and spirituality based. Contrast this with the pride festival in Columbus and the contrast is immediately apparent. Corporations and larger local businesses filled the streets during the parade and lined the festival grounds with their information booths.

The rest of the week was again mostly helping out where I can in terms of pride preparation. I am beginning to understand the scale at which Equitas operates at the state-wide pride festivities. Packing dozens of pride bags each filled with dozens of Equitas branded goodies put into perspective how helpful an additional set of hands can be in terms of preparation. Organizing lines of communication and ensuring people are able to get the information that they need at first seemed mundane and simple, but I now know that it is work that is never quite finished and is essential in terms of executing goals.

I’ve been getting more comfortable with the idea of working from home, now that I have a better lay of the land and idea of what my responsibilities look like. However, it does present another interesting contrast, this time between the real-world work that Equitas does (particularly at events) and the large amount of work that can be done behind a computer screen out of the office.