Redwood Day at Oakland Pride

This past Sunday, September 8th, the Redwood Day community came out in full force as an official contingent of the Oakland Pride Parade. As I arrived in downtown Oakland at 10:00 a.m., the crowds were already gathering, and I was curious about how many people from our School community would show up. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I immediately began seeing our familiar Redwood Day Oakland Pride T-shirts attached to smiling faces from a bunch of our RD fam from a wide array of ages and backgrounds.

 

Before you knew it, we were a massive group of students, families, faculty, and staff all gathering together on 14th St. in front of Oakland City Hall, dancing to the music as we got ready to march. Our community members were dressed colorfully with lots of flair, rainbows, and unique styles. It was especially heartwarming to see our youngest community members, such as Kieran (pictured below), passing out bracelets and other goodies to their fellow marchers nearby. The diversity of the Oakland community was truly on display, and Redwood Day fit right in beautifully!

 

 

Around 11:00 a.m., we started marching up Broadway, waving at the crowds, who seemed especially happy to see us. We even made the news—check out this link at the 21:30-minute mark!

 

I want to give a huge shout-out to all the students who proudly carried our Redwood Day banner the whole time. This group includes, but is not limited to, the following Cougars: Yamuna, Lennon, Claire, Eve, Asha, Caroline, Maia, Sawyer, and Addie. Thank you so much!

 

It was a very special day in Oakland as we came together in unity, courage, and kindness to march in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ community and affirm our commitment to equity and belonging for all!

 

In community,

Sanjev