Did you know that Owosso Pride is run entirely by volunteers? From producing the Owosso Pride festival every year, to creating safe spaces for the community throughout the year, our volunteers make everything we do possible.
In this Volunteer Spotlight, we’d like to introduce you to Mary Basso (they/she), member of our Events Committee, Communications Committee, and Education Committee:
“I am excited to be a member of the Owosso Pride volunteer team and look forward to the positive impact this organization will have within our community. I grew up just down the road in Corunna, Michigan. As an adolescent, I struggled to accept my identity as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. I experienced a lack of support and acceptance from my peers, my teachers, and community at large.
During my time at the University of Michigan, I was able to meet other LGBTQ+ students and find the support I had been missing. I started to learn the significance of coming together, holding space for one another, and working together to demand change where communities at large were unaccepting or discriminatory.
I brought the lessons I learned with me to Vanderbilt Law School, where I served as President of the LGBTQ+ student affinity group, OutLaw. Within the law school, I worked with the group to lobby for increased inclusive programming, improved gender inclusive name and pronoun practices, and general support in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ protests on campus and in Nashville at large. Outside the law school, I worked to unite LGBTQ+ affinity groups across the Vanderbilt campus so we could share the burdens of each other’s struggles and offer support to one another.
Watching Owosso Pride grow has been an incredibly meaningful experience. As an adolescent, I never would have dreamed that there would be a group in Owosso that spoke openly, and positively, about the LGBTQ+ experience. I’m thrilled to say that this organization is one that offers solidarity, community, and hope to LGBTQ+ people in the Shiawassee county area. I’m excited to lend a hand to an organization that shows LGBTQ+ people they are accepted for who they are.”
