By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Ortonville — Local non-profit Abigail’s Pride has received a grant for $5,000.
The grant comes from the Flagstar Employee Resource Groups for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“We beat out a lot of other LGBTQ organizations for it,” said founder Abigail Rowe, 17.
Abigail’s Pride was founded by Rowe in 2021 as a way to create a safer and happier environment for LGBTQ+ youth in and around the Ortonville community. The non-profit was part of her Gold Award project for Girl Scouts. Part of the grant will go back to the area girl scout troops of all age levels.
“We’re working on creating a girl scout fun patch,” she said. “They have badges and then they have fun patches. When I was little we would get them from going to museums and stuff like that. But the girls would do a project about diversity, equity and inclusion and receive their patch that they could put on their uniform.”
The project would help teach about diversity, equity and inclusion in an age-appropriate way, which aligns with the goal of Abigail’s Pride Festival to be family-friendly and for people of all ages.
The grant will also go towards their upcoming programs at the Brandon Township Public Library for middle and high school students.
“The more fun things to do here the better,” said Rowe. “We plan to have bi-weekly meetings at the library, and they would be run like an after-school club. We’d have an opening ice-breaker activity, and then we’d talk about topics such as how to have healthy friendships or relationships, or things like coming out. They we’d just kind of hang out, and it would be a good opportunity to make friends.”
For the upcoming year, Rowe says they are planning a fundraiser gala in late January, in addition to the annual Pride festival in June.