Why Volunteers Matter at Long Beach Pride: Roles and Impact

Long Beach Pride is one of the largest Pride celebrations in California, and it runs on volunteers. They marshal the parade, staff the information booths and help build the festival before the gates open. Without them, the weekend simply doesn’t happen.

That is true all the way to the top. Long Beach Pride is an all-volunteer organization, from our board to the people staffing the information booths. With the 2024 festival on May 18 and 19 and the parade on Sunday, May 19, this is a good moment to talk about what volunteers do and why it matters so much.

What Volunteers Do

Pride weekend is three events in one: Teen Pride, a two-day festival with stages, food, more than 150 arts and crafts vendors and community booths, and the parade along Ocean Boulevard. Each one needs people. Volunteers help with parade coordination and marshaling, festival setup, information booths and pointing attendees in the right direction. These jobs keep the weekend running smoothly and help everyone have a safe, fun day.

Some volunteers find their way to the part of Pride closest to their heart. In 2018, Stephanie Camacho-Van Dyke, Youth Program Manager at the LGBTQ+ Center of OC, gave her weekend to our Family Fun Zone.

We don’t have a Family Fun Zone area at our Pride event, so I volunteered my time to be a part of this wonderful event for our youth.

Stephanie Camacho-Van Dyke

Why It Matters

A volunteer is often the first friendly face someone sees at Pride. For a person attending for the first time, that welcome can stay with them for years. Many volunteers stay involved long after the weekend ends and keep showing up for LGBTQ+ rights and awareness all year.

Volunteering is part of our history, too. Our co-founder Bob Crow kept volunteering at the festival and parade every year, decades after he helped start the organization. That kind of steady, generous presence is what built Long Beach Pride.

It is good for you as well. Volunteers pick up new skills, meet people who care about the same things and leave knowing they helped thousands of neighbors have a great day.

How to Get Involved

How do I sign up? Fill out the volunteer application on our Get Involved page. It asks for some basic information, the kind of work you’re interested in and when you’re available.

What roles are there? Parade coordination, festival setup, information booths and more. There is room for many different skills and comfort levels.

Can it lead to more? It can. Volunteers often build lasting connections and go on to deeper involvement in community work across Long Beach.

We’d love to have you on the team this May.