LWP VIDEO NIGHT

Hey guys,

We've locked in our post parade video night for Friday 20 April.  Swing down to day hi, catch up with new friends, have a drink and laugh at our video together, with no stress about remembering dance moves or holding your stomach in.  We'll meet from 7.30 at Palms on Oxford ST where we have half an hour before the venue opens to the public, although its still empty for an hour or so.  I should be a fun night and it'll be your last chance to say thanks to the committee before we all go into hibernation over winter.

Partners, friends, past members and potential lifesavers are all welcome.

See you there.

Gary and the new larger Committee now including Dom and Holly

2018 PARADE PICTURES

Hey guys,

Keep an eye out for our post parade video night, where we can all gather for a drink and watch the final product that Mike has put together after his countless hours of filming and editing.  We're just confirming venue and date, but it'll be a Friday night in April.

In the meantime, for those of you not on facebook, here is a selection of pictures that our photographer Justin has posted online for us.

More are available on our facebook group

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.1640278526052556&type=3

Gary and the Committee

2018 PARADE LIVE STREAM

Hey,

Here's the live stream of the parade from SBS.  There is no commentary and the overlap of music between floats is messy but you get the idea.  Lifesavers with Pride come in at about 117 minutes, and we go for a minute or two.  Each time you think they've moved onto the next float, they keep coming back to us.

https://twitter.com/i/events/964347502496329728

Also, the committee want to really thank our sponsors this year.

Thanks to Rival for providing us with our swimwear.  They generously provided all our swimwear for the parade, so that we all look great on camera.  Be sure to wear them out and about on the beaches.

https://rival.runningbare.com.au/

Thanks too to Balance water who kept us hydrated throughout the rehearsals, Fair Day and the parade.  Be sure to spread the word.

http://drinkbalance.com/

And thanks to our helper,

Brenton Parry Photography who did the work on our new banner

https://www.brentonparry.com/

Skylight Productions for their great work on the Audio Visuals on our truck

dylan@skylightproductions.com.au
Andy Wilson for the music loop

https://plasma.com.au/

and, Drew Lambert for his help on the media rehearsal

drew@dlcomms.com.au

Plus the lovely Bev Ferguson for all her work at her sewing machine making up all the coloured flags, after making the white ones for us a few years ago.

Its only with the help of our people and volunteers supporting us, and sponsors providing us with their generosity that we can put on such a great performance every year.

Gary and the Committee

RECOGNITION OF LGBT ROLE MODELS

How much fun was last Saturday night?  Only 12 years ago Surf Life Savers were marching for the first time with a reluctant organisation allowing us to march in our first ever parade.  And only a week ago, the CEO of Surf Life Saving Australia Melissa King called us to wish us luck, the first time the CEO has ever contacted us directly, and the CEO of Surf Life Saving New South Wales came to our rehearsal to wish us luck, and followed that up by actually joining us in the parade.  It's only through the likes of committed individuals that we've got this far.

Diversity in Sport is a national organisation that promotes LGBT within Australia's sporting organisations, and LWP has been working with them of late to ensure that Surf Life Saving takes a more inclusive and diverse positions with its members.  They also produce Pride Inclusion Programs, and run the Pride in Sport Diversity Index (which LWP is still trying to get SLSA to participate in).  Within this are the annual Individual awards for Role Models for the LGBT community.

The following categories are open for nomination for the calendar year 2017;

• Ally Award
• Community Sporting Group Award
• Inclusion Initiative Award
• Coach Award
• Out Role Model Award, and
• Small Club Award

It's invaluable that we acknowledge the commitment and dedication of our role models, no matter what their sexuality, to demonstrate to our newer members that we truly value a diverse and inclusive organisation.  If you know anyone suitable for nominating both current or former members of the lifesaving community, feel free to get in touch with the committee, or even nominate them yourself.  

http://www.prideindiversity.com.au/PSI/

Applications should be submitted by next Friday 16 March

Gary and the Committee

PARADE RECOVERY BLUES

Well you've probably already started finding glitter in strange places.  There's a week or two of that to go.

Thanks everyone for contributing to such a great night on Saturday.  We had such a huge response from everyone.  The float went off without a hitch, with 80 fantastic lifesavers telling the world that Life Saving in Australia is for everyone regardless of your sexuality.

But for now, just glow in the joy of  Saturday night's fun, energy and excitement.  Only 364 days to go to next year.

A big thank you has to go to the committee who work tirelessly, by going to the pub a lot, joking on messenger a lot, paying each other out at every opportunity, taking plenty of boomerang pics of ourselves and just being at the beach whenever they can, all while putting together such a great entry. Thanks to;

• Nick for his role of treasurer and his mum for endless hours of sewing our flags
• Grant as treasurer, telling me to spend less money
• Wayne managing the logistics of getting a generator that actually works, and sound and lights when our supplier goes out of business with no notice
• Andrew for arranging all things rehearsal, such as the room/courtyard hire and the song loop
• Mick Boland for dealing with everyone who decided they changed swimwear sizes at the last minute
• Orlando for the rego process and chasing up waiting lists and payment issues
• Mike Barley for dealing with Fair Day mayhem, and helping logistics on the parade
• David for arranging the post parade bash, more so when the first venue cancelled two days out
• Karen for all our social media comms
• Bastien for our media work, getting the great SMH article out there

plus our key helpers,

• Bravo for making lifesavers who excel at lifesaving appear to be talented dancers too,
• Mike for not filming us when we look stupid, and
• Justin for pictures carefully edited to exclude when we forget to suck our stomachs in.

Anyone who wants to help us as a committee next year, feel free to get in touch with any of the above, or me, Gary at lifesaverswithpride@gmail.com of through messenger.  We're going to have a casual parade debrief in a week or two, so swing along and say hi, no obligations.

In the meantime, put your feet up and breath easy, and reintroduce yourself to carbs.

Gary

TODAY IS THE DAY

Are you;
A) jumping up and down clapping your hands
B) breathing into a paper bag
C) squealing like a pig?

Then you are ready for tonight's Lifesavers with Pride, 2018 40th Anniversary Mardi Gras parade entry.  It's all come down to today and we are all super excited.  So the checklist is;

• Meet at 4pm in front of the Sydney Football Stadium, by Kippax Lake
• Bring your red issued swimwear, red and yellow quarter cap, white shoes, and uniform if you are volunteering (we'll have spares, but any red shorts are fine).
• Bring as little else as possible as storage space is limited
• Do not bring alcohol or drugs, nor come under the influence of such.
• Bring the biggest smile you've got, because it's going to be fun.  So much fun in fact that at 9pm you'll desperately want to run to the front and do it again.
• Tell your friends to meet you at the Unicorn Hotel on Oxford st from about 10pm where we will head afterwards (FYI, I met my partner, now husband after my first MG with LWP at the post parade drinks so the precedent has been set)

The committee is really keen to remind all that this is our opportunity to say to everyone, including the LGBT community that lifesaving is a progressive, inclusive and welcoming organisation no matter what your sexuality is.  So lets get out there and be the role models we want for tomorrow's lifesavers.

Here's another bit of media we got today from Wednesday's march.  Enjoy and see you this afternoon at 4pm

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/flags-at-the-ready-for-40-years-of-mardi-gras-fun-20180301-p4z2dl.html

Looking forward to seeing your glitteringly smiling faces soon.

Gary, Nick, Andrew, Mike, Mick, Bastien, Orlando, Karen, Grant, Wayne, Dave, Christine, plus Bravo, Mike and Justin and hopefully you too next year too

REHEARSALS ARE DONE NOW

Our final beach rehearsal went off really well on Wednesday with over and hour on the sand, with the public providing great support.

It was also great to have Steve Peace the CEO of SLSNSW come down and personally wish us well for Saturday night.  What's more today I received a phone call of support from Melissa King, the CEO of SLSA, giving us the same support and saying that they are really proud of the work we do, and that they look forward every year to our float.  This is the first that either organisation has ever reached out to us in our 12 years, and it just says so much that the very top now want to go out of their way to support us.  We're getting the message through, slowly but steadily.

Anyway, here are some pics, for those who don't have facebook.