To cap off an eventful Pride Month, Scholastic officially participated in the New York City Pride March on Sunday, June 30th! This year, NYC hosted WorldPride and marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, drawing millions of people eager to commemorate the occasions.
Over 150 people joined to march with Scholastic, with employees, families, and friends coming together in their ‘Read with Pride’ shirts. Our marchers even gave away thousands ‘Read with Pride’ stickers at the parade! (Learn more about our annual Read with Pride campaign here.) Due to the record-breaking crowds and participants, the event was met with delays throughout the day but nonetheless, the marchers were in high spirits and excited to be participating.
David Bitkower, one Scholastic’s co-organizers, said: “Having Scholastic marching officially for the first time in the NYC Pride parade and to know that over 150 employees, friends and family members came out to march and represent the Company really shows that Scholastic is truly an inclusive place to work. I'm so joyful that Scholastic can celebrate who I am and the LGBTQIA+ community.”
“The day was epic. We literally heard kids screaming for Scholastic and adults telling us how Scholastic changed their life,” added co-organizer Jessica Moon.
The daylong march began at Madison Square Park, and passed by historic LGBTQIA+ sites such as the Stonewall National Monument and the NYC AIDS Memorial Park in Greenwich Village.
Scholastic Education’s Jerusha Saldaña Yáñez, who completed the two-mile march, said: “The reason I wanted to march is because I wanted to honor those who came before us, those who are with us, and those who will join us in the future.”
Check out some social media highlights from the parade:
We're capping off our month-long #ReadWithPride campaign by joining in the #NYCPrideMarch! pic.twitter.com/BQUc2QjRNN
— Scholastic (@Scholastic) June 30, 2019
We've marched a few feet! Proud to be representing classroom magazines #ReadWithPride #Pride @ScholasticTeach @Scholastic pic.twitter.com/xWtKnXselw
— Jessica Warren (@_jesswarren) June 30, 2019
Jun 30, 2019 at 6:25pm PDT
Although Pride Month is officially over, we’ll be championing the importance of LGBTQIA+ representation in children’s books all year long! You can hear from some of our favorite authors about this topic on our Scholastic Reads podcast here.
