Friday, November 13, 2009

The final numbers!

Its amazing what can happen when a community works together as one. The Board of Philadelphia Leather Pride Night is proud to announce the following numbers going to charity.

From us to The Leather Archives and Museum... $8755

This amount was raised from the door and also every single penny of the live auction which brought in $5815 thanks to Jo Arnone and the companies, events, groups and individuals that donated auction items making it such a huge success.

From us to The Leather Heart Foundation... $1348

This amount was raised through the silent auction which was made possible and successful due to Master Steve and slave tami with their army of volunteers. Thank you to the companies, events, groups and individuals that donated auction items. Special thank you also to slave kelly for donating her water color "Illumination".

From us to By the Grace of George... $595

This amount was raised by the raffle ticket sales during the event. Special thank you to all the volunteers who stepped forward to help run the raffle table and sell the tickets. Also special thanks to the companies, groups and individuals who donated items for the raffle table.

Total monies donated to charity... $10,698

Thank you to the communities that made all of this possible. If we can work that well together for one night then we should be able to do so every night.
The coordinators and volunteers were an essential part of the night as well as our EmCee Jill Carter and speakers Ms Pandora and Ms Khiki. We had over 100 volunteers from at least 9 different states and countless groups and communities. Several flew to Philadelphia to help out, some drove here right after a major leather event in Baltimore and there were those behind the scenes like Jez who gave countless hours of her precious time to make sure our web site stayed up to date, Remi who shinned while keeping the night moving, Mistress Dee from Hellfire and Kat with our friends who raised most of the seed money. The entire staff of PLPN was just amazing! If you see one of our volunteers or coordinators out and about please thank them for helping make this event happen and also for believing.

Rick from the Leather Archives and Museum drove the LA&M display to Philadelphia all the way from Chicago. It was wonderful having him and the display here and for them to bring so much of our history home for a weekend. Add in the Peek-a-Boo Review, who donated their segment of the entertainment, the Bike Stop for the after party in town and Dottie who stayed behind at the hotel to make sure we had an amazing Leather Flea the next day. It was our friends and our community that made the entire weekend happen. My hat off to each of you!

I am proud to be from Philadelphia and a part of this historical event.
I am prouder yet to be part of not just the leather community but so many others that were represented.

Cowboi Jen
Mid-Atlantic Leather Woman 2009
Producer Philadelphia Leather Pride Night

Philadelphia Leather Pride Night

I arrived home from California on Nov 5th to a house full of friends. Boi Jen has already flown in from Florida several days earlier to be my replacement while I was away. She knows what she is doing and I trusted her with my household while away. Several hours after my plane landed I was back to the airport to pick up Margaret, SouthEast Leather Bootblack aka girl go fix it. She flew in to help keep me sane for the weekend and make sure things ran as smooth as possible. More came in the next day, Ms Kitty from Florida and Shy Butch from York. Remi was also here and he wound up taking over the Production Manager Position for the event.

Nov 7th is a day that I will always remember. Philadelphia Leather Pride Night was finally here. I don't think any of us were prepared for what happened that night. What started out as a community project where I was asked to Produce a fundraiser turned into a major adventure. I remember standing firm stating I was only going to run Philadelphia Leather Pride Night....well the 5 hour event turned into the event plus an after party at the Bike Stop plus a host hotel plus a vendors mart plus a volunteer appreciation after party at the hotel... whew... so much for just 5 hours. Did I mention Rick Storer himself came to Philly and brought the LA&M Traveling Archives to display for us?

The doors opened at 7pm, somehow we were visibly ready. An army of volunteers had shown up to help out, I believe at one count it was over 80. The night opened with boy kevin on stage flagging then Pandora to open the event and introduce Jill Carter as our EmCee. Rick made a quick appearance on stage and help up Ms Carter's IMsL sash that he had brought back to Philly from the museum. I don't think she realizes mo st of the crowd stood up and cheered when she was on stage and they stayed standing when Jo Arnone was brought up next as our Auctioneer. The local Title Holders came out in droves to present items at the live auction. I saw faces that have not seen in many years. A car load even drove up from Baltimore after the Mr Maryland Leather contest.

The crowd became thicker and thicker and almost ever seat in the house was taken. The night was a whirlwind. As Producer I was everywhere with a huge smile on my face. I kept hearing the auction and the numbers coming in. I looked around and saw the event coordinators. They were absolutely amazing! Each one of them represented a different community group from the 5 state region. Between them and seeing so many different groups in the audience this was the largest gathering of leather, M/s, kink, and BDSM communities in many years in our great city. This night the venue became a classroom on what leather is about and who we are.

When the first segment of the auction was over Master Steve and slave tami, the Northeast Master slave couple for a quick speech then came on our entertainment. The Peek-a-Boo Review (burlesque show) donated a 30 minute segment. It was during this time that I did my first stage change. When the show ended Jo took the stage again. It was time for the Passional Power Hour where all auction items were donated by Kali from Passional and Passional Toys. My grand appearance... on stage in full fem attire.. corset, collar, opera gloves, skirt, harness w/dildo, fishnets, high heeled boots, fully hooded with a handful of toys. The audience had no idea who was up there. The 3 toys all went for triple their value. Jo did know it was me and we had discussed prior how far I was willing to go to raise money...which was pretty damn far. Each piece of clothing slowly was won and taken right off of my b ody. Jo kept leaving the heels on me and was having fun watching me try to balance. When the hood was taken off of me I could hear OMG coming from the audience. The rest of the clothes were quickly bought off of me and damn if they didn't have fun doing so. I will never forget Thomas with the boots. He used his teeth to loosen the ribbon and unzip them. I have also learned black electrical tape may not be the best thing to use to cover the nipples. Taking that off hurt worse then what was done to auction off the toys...lol.

Stage change #2 put me in my red leathers and back on stage with Rick Storer who had also brought back Caren Cunninghams title vest. She had passed last year only a couple of weeks after winning Ms NJ Leather. I have missed her friendship and it was important to include her in the night. She is the one that had convinced me to run for a title so we could throw fundraisers together. The final segment of the auction had started and we were out of time. We had to be out of the venue by 12:30 and it was midnight. Jo did her magic and sped up the auction. This was the wow segment of auction items. The one that I went after the hardest to obtain was won by my Director of Ops Wendy and Head of Security Sir Charles. They won an intimate conversation with Vi Johnson. I was beaming watching the stage. As the auction ended our keynote speaker took the stage. Our community is very fortunate to have obtained our newest resident. Ms Khiki who was the first Ms Atlanta Eagle then had won the title of International Master in 1999. She is so amazing and I heard every word of her message about rebuilding communities. Unfortunately during her speech the clean-up had to begin. I felt horrible and will find a way to make up for it. It was past 12:30am and management had already sternly told me we had to clear out. I wound up having to leave to return the chairs by 1am then off to the after party at the hotel. After inhaling several pieces of pizza and socializing it was time to head home. 4am I finally fell into bed for a handful of hours. The next day was the vendors mart at the host hotel and it was very successful. We kept the event as affordable as possible and found a hotel for 69 a night and was able to make the Philly Leather Flea a free event to go too. So $100 got you 2 tickets to the event plus a hotel room for the night and a vendors mart the next day. Mission accomplished... I was able to go to DC to keep a promise of showing up to the women's event at the Crucible. What a way to end the weekend!

California!

Days before the charity event in Philadelphia, I found myself in San Francisco for the International Leather Sir, Leather boy and Community Bootblack Competition, www.leathersir.com. ILSb/cbb. I arrived on the Thursday of the event and right off the bat made arrangements with friends at the airport and shared a taxi. Great way to start the weekend. I have been to San Francisco for Folsom but have never had the chance to really sight see. So my friend and I went for a walk-about and wound up at a Harley Davidson dealership. I already knew they rented motorcycles and was excited at the thought of seeing the city on 2 wheels. They had a huge selection of bikes for rent. Harley, BMW, Honda etc... what did we wind up with? A Vestpa 250 scooter. I actually own a scooter at home and my friend picked the scooter so I could drive it too. I do have a motorcycle license but that does not mean I can drive one..lol.

So 2 days and 118 miles later we had a blast riding around the city. Up and down... up and down... weeeeeeeee.... The view from Twin Peaks is pretty awsome but being the butch bitch on the back was priceless. I adored holding onto the femme..grins. Up and down... up and down... then off to the ocean. We made a turn and I saw something quite unexpected. Horses... there was a huge stable right by the ocean. Next morning we were off on the scooter again and on horseback by 8:30am. Just the two of us plus the guide made for a perfect ride. As we were galloping down the beach I slowed my horse to a lope and watched the seals pace me. There was a small group of them and they kept popping their heads up and looking right at us... almost questioning.. what ya doing? and defiantly showing they were faster then me. So during the day I finally got to see the city and there is no better way then on 2 wheels.

At night was the competition and what a competition it was! It was my first time at the International Competition and was quite surprised at how many people I knew there. My title team of Kyle, boy eddie and bootblack Brandon were all at their best. I couldn't have cheered them on any louder. I am damn proud of the 3 of them. They had a great showing over the weekend. The number of leather women that showed up to the event was staggering. It was announced that 40% of the ticket sales were to women..wow! What made that night super memorable was getting pinned by Mama herself. I am now Mama's Cowboi Jen number 1111 of her family. How can I ever forget Halloween this year?

That night I went waaaay outside of my box. I wound up at the bathhouse. On a very rare occasion they open it to women so why not? It was a queer party and I hung ou t for a bit then back to the hotel. That was an experience.The city was alive with party goers. On Sunday I volunteered for the victory party at the door of Stompers. I got to see everyone one last time and say my goodbyes. I had dinner with my California Leather Family, Evil Mommy Tina. I didn't realize just how much I miss her. By far she is one of the people that have been my backbone all these years. We wound up meeting up again for breakfast and she drove me to the airport. This is when the adventure starts... I wasn't flying out.. I was picking up the rental car.
My friend and I went up the coastal expressway route 1. I must say I have been working out at the gym but damn.. those twists and turns along the coast really worked my arm muscles. Someone taught me how to drive them and what the different signs meant. Coming from Philly we are mostly flatland and though I do know how to drive it was fun being told. We traveled well together and I enjoyed the entire drive. Walks on the beach, sunsets over the ocean and breakfast at a wonderful B&B made for one hell of a trip to the.... REDWOODS. All I can say is WOW. We stopped at the visitor center and got directions to the best trails, did a small loop to the biggest trees in the grove then found a nice cabin to spend the night in. The 2nd day in the forrest we went for a longer hike. At one point I had to stop and sit down. I wasn't tired but was overwhelmed. What I saw was so beautiful I had to take a moment and thank the higher being for me being alive to be there. We went back to San Fra ncisco and spent one last night in the city before flying home on Thursday morning. Only 52 hours until the charity event... nothing like cutting it close.