BY ALYSSA LASHBROOK
Residents celebrated with rainbow Skittles and Kool-Aid at the Sheridan Trafalgar residence on Friday with an educational scavenger hunt and a pride parade.
Gathering in the lobby, a group of about 10 students was given sheets of paper with questions on them and then sent off to find the answers that were scattered around the commons in residence.
Chloe Whalen, a residence advisor, created the event with the aim to educate and make them feel welcomed within the campus community.
“I know there are a lot of kids who are different people when they’re at home than when they’re at college, because they feel that they can be fully themselves for the first time in their life, so just to support that environment where everyone can be whoever they want, is important to be represented in residence,” Whalen said.
The questions all ranged from significant events in LGBT history to facts that most people might not know.
“There’s a large community of LGBT kids in residence and obviously at Sheridan in general, but there are students who come from all different walks of life, within and outside the community that don’t know a lot about it,” Whalen said.
One of the residents who attended, Kristine Reddecopp, said that the educational part of the event did teach her about LGBT history.
“I didn’t know that gay marriage was legalized in 2005 here in Canada, so I learned stuff which was really cool,” Reddecopp said.
Besides learning about LGBT history, those who took part in the event also got to hang out later on and enjoy the residence community.
“There is a lot of people in the community here on residence and in my experience so far it’s been really accepting and everyone is really cool about everything,” Reddecopp said.
Nic Phan, a resident and an RA, also noticed that the community seems to be very open and accepting.
“The residence community is very warm and accepting and that this event just strengthens that concept of everyone being able to find their place and that the Sheridan Residence team really cares about them,” said Phan.
Resident Aaron Sutton noticed the work that Whalen put into the event and how it affected the community.
“This really brought the community together and everyone seemed passionate about it and Chloe (Whalen) really brought that out of people,” said Sutton.
The event was open to all residents and besides the educational value, it celebrated pride.
“Pride means celebrating who you are as a person, not being ashamed of who you are and not letting other people determine how you should feel about yourself,” Whalen said.
After the event, everyone who attended thanked Whalen and agreed that they would like to see more events like this one.
“I’d love more events like this, especially as it was my first pride event,” Reddecopp said.
