Spreading Sunshine on Disability Pride Month
By Adam Chalifoux
Spread Your Sunshine is set to sponsor five events for Disability Pride Month this July in Moorhead.
“July is Disability Pride Month, and our founder, Addie, has a disability,” Marisa Bengtson-Loerzel, co-founder of Spread Your Sunshine, said. “Spread Your Sunshine was very much based on and born out of the idea of inclusion and inclusion mattering, and Addie's experience with not being included.”
Addie Loerzel was born with spina bifida, which she said prevented her from being able to participate in certain experiences as a child that her peers enjoyed. As an adult, Loerzel has worked tirelessly to promote inclusion and spread joy through Spread Your Sunshine.
This month is personal to Loerzel’s life experience and the mission of her nonprofit organization, she said, which is to promote inclusion and spread joy to children and families facing obstacles.
Five free events will run through July. Each aims to raise awareness, inform the community, share joy, and promote inclusion through interactive activities.
Spread Your Sunshine founder, Addie Loerzel poses for a photo with friends at a Disability Pride Event from last summer
“It's so exciting in so many ways,” Loerzel said. “I feel like these will be really fun events and very engaging, and you'll have a lot of fun.”
The celebration kicks off with Disability History Bingo from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7, inside the Moorhead Library at 450 Center Ave.
This bingo game comes with a slight twist, however.
“Instead of numbers and like traditional bingo there's clues given about historic moments in the disability rights movement and historic people,” Bengtson-Loerzel said. “So, it's very fun because we're still playing for prizes to try to get that bingo, but you're learning a lot about the history of the disability rights movement throughout the game.”
The second event is a screening of the 2018 film "Intelligent Lives" on July 9th at the Fargo Theatre at 314 Broadway North, followed by a non-alcoholic Sip and Paint event on July 14 in the Moorhead Library and a Trivia Night on July 21 in the Moorhead Library.
Capping off the month of festivities will be the Disability Pride Festival, which Loerzel describes as the "grand finale" with "huge party vibes." The event will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on July 28 inside the Moorhead Library. Attendees will enjoy ice cream, food, inflatable games, and more.
“We're hoping to get lots of people out," Bengston-Loerzel said. "You love it. So fun."
Courtesy: The Arc / Spread Your Sunshine Facebook Page
This is the second year that Moorhead has celebrated Disability Pride Month and the second year that Spread Your Sunshine has participated, Bengston-Loerzel said.
The event has only gotten bigger this year, she said, upping last year’s two to three activities to the five that Spread Your Sunshine is offering this July.
“We're still very much in the infancy of this movement here. Yeah. And that's exciting because with every event, we're meeting new people (and) we're educating people,” she said. “We know we're not changing the world by having these events, but we're kind of chipping away, getting people involved, hopefully moving forward.”