It was a day of acceptance, appreciation, confidence and kindness as members of the LGBTQ community from across North Carolina, friends and allies joined together for Wilson’s first Pride celebration.

“We put on this event for the community,” said Greg Mason, co-owner of Treat Yo’ Self Bakery.

Mason and his partner Alex Smolen, along with Mahalia Witter-Merithew, co-owner of Casita Brewing Co., joined forces with about 25 volunteers to put on the daylong event.

“It is a 100% community-sponsored event,” said Mason, who garnered support from Truist Bank and many other local and regional companies and individuals to hold the city’s first-ever celebration expressly supporting the notion that everyone deserves to be celebrated no matter what their race, gender or sexual orientation.

“It’s super important to celebrate our diversity no matter where you are, because it only strengthens your community when everyone feels celebrated and everyone feels like they belong,” Mason said.

Witter-Merithew hosted the evening portion of the celebration in the beer garden adjacent to the brewery.

“It’s been really touching,” Witter-Merithew said. “When this got started, there was an older demographic that just started crying. They had been waiting for this for a long time.”

Witter-Merithew said events like this “knit the community together.”

“It’s just been so beautiful,” she said.

Betsy Rascoe and her husband Hunter Rascoe, co-owners of Zebulon-based Design Dimension Inc., helped put together a four-piece interactive exhibit that was placed on the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park stage.

“We wanted to do a public art project that was changing by the minute and by the person. We wanted it to be very participatory. At the same time, we wanted to collect a little bit of data since this is the first year of the Pride celebration just to kind of see how everyone is reacting to get a little information of who’s here,” Betsy Rascoe said.

The couple worked with Mason and Smolen to come up with questions for the panels.

“Our theme here is ‘Throw Kindness Like Confetti,’ so we wanted to share a little love, share kindness and confidence so at the end of the exhibit, you can take a note of kindness from the mailboxes and you should leave a note of kindness just to kind of spread that into the community,” Rascoe said.

Visitors stretched multicolored yarn from panel to panel, chosing their own path based on the messages that most interested them.

“I think it is important to know that no matter who you are, there is something that you can do to make an impact and make a difference,” Rascoe said. “I think we wanted to provide all the ways that you can do that as a community member, and at the same time, we wanted to share a little love and kindness and just remind everyone that comes through that they are loved and they are beautiful.”

Stan C. Kimer of Total Engagement Consulting offered diversity and inclusion training at the Imagination Science and History Museum.

“As a society, we should be fully affirming and accepting of all aspects of diversity, not only sexual orientation and gender identity, but race, gender, age, people with disabilities or immigrants,” Kimer said. “As a country, when every single person can be truly valued for what they bring to the table, the skills and the hard work they bring, we as a country can advance and be better collectively when everybody is contributing to their fullest.”

Kimer said whenever a group is placed on the outside, it damages the country as a whole.

At the end of the day, the participants came together to have a lip sync contest and pull the dollar bills out of their pockets for a drag show.

“I couldn’t ask for a better turnout,” Mason said. “My expectations are blown away. It’s such a powerful thing to see all these LGBTQ+ youth just dress up, be their true, authentic selves and just be accepted for who they are.”

Cecilia Petrella, one of 25 volunteers who helped put on the event, said Pride committee members really put their hearts into the celebration.

“It really takes a team to build something like this, and I am so happy to be part of it,” Petrella said. “The reason it’s so important, I have seen so many kids, teenagers walking around living their best life, enjoying the day. I saw a bunch of smalls, a bunch of laughing, a lot of hugs, which has been really nice especially coming out of the past two years. It has been nice to see a lot of smiles.”