Springfield, IL (June 4, 2024) CORAL celebrated its third annual Pride Night with the Lucky Horseshoes on a warm June 4th at the Robin Roberts Stadium. While the evening began with a short rainstorm, all was cool and dry by game time. The Shoes put in a good effort against the O’Fallon Hoots with 10 hits for the game but unfortunately fell with a score of 2 – 7. And, for additional entertainment, the cast of “Jersey Boys” were present to sing a few tunes.
CORAL also put in a good effort by shooting out ten specially designed shirts for the evening with our logo on the front and our co-host, Broadgauge, on the back. During the inning breaks, over 50 baseball shaped stress balls were thrown out to the spectators as well. The booth at the entrance saw a lot of action too with many familiar and new faces stopping to collect information on CORAL as well as upcoming events for Pride month and further.
On a special note, the board and members of CORAL have always seen their place as one to educate and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community by working with allies and partners throughout Central Illinois. It is those finer moments when a stranger is touched through outreach that makes all the work worthwhile. While staffing the front booth, one of the Lucky Horseshoe employees walked over and requested one of the Pride flags being passed out. She explained that when she was attending college at Blackburn back in 1973, she had a friend tearfully come out to her as being lesbian. She told those at the booth that she never thought of anything but support for her friend and she wanted to take a selfie holding the flag so she could send it to her to continue to show her support after all these years.
This is why CORAL does what it does.
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