Manchester-by-the-Sea area local Victoria LoConte offers a closer look at North Shore Pride.
Victoria LoConte 7
Held each year in the Massachusetts town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, the mission of North Shore Pride is to promote the welfare, unity, and acceptance of the local LGBTQ community by engaging in fundraising activities and partnering with allied individuals and organizations. Local emergency room staff nurse and past North Shore Pride attendee Victoria LoConte provides a closer look at this year’s upcoming event.
“The annual North Shore Pride event takes place each year in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a town on Cape Ann, in Essex County, Massachusetts, well known for its scenic beaches and vista points,” reveals LoConte, a resident of nearby Everett, approximately 25 miles southwest of Manchester.
LoConte most recently attended the event in 2017, where she represented Lynn Community Health Center. “Lynne Community Health Center is proud to offer comprehensive health care of the highest quality to everyone in the community,” she explains, “regardless of their ability to pay.”
The Greater Boston area organization currently offers LGBTQ+ primary care, hormone therapy, PrEP, behavioral health, and STI testing and treatment, among a wide variety of other vital and much relied upon medical, health, and wellness services.
North Shore Pride seeks to enhance the social life of the local gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, while also promoting the general welfare and acceptance of the same individuals by the wider North Shore population.
Also intended to promote greater understanding of LGBTQ issues, the event and its organizers further serve as advocates on behalf of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community in and around the North Shore area, and throughout Manchester and further afield.
“North Shore Pride organizers engage in producing events designed to promote fundraising for their work in order to give back to the community,” explains LoConte. “It’s only through partnering with passionate local individuals, businesses, and other organizations that the event is able to so successfully carry out its mission,” adds the emergency room staff nurse.
North Shore Pride 2019 officially kicks off on Thursday, June 20, at 7:00 pm with the North Shore Pride Interfaith Service. The main pride parade, meanwhile, begins at 12:00 pm on Saturday, June 22. This is followed at 1:00 pm by the North Shore Pride Festival, and, later in the evening, the event’s after-party.
Further to hosting the annual North Shore Pride event, Manchester-by-the-Sea also boasts a number of other attractions and points of interest, including the so-called Singing Beach. “Singing Beach is so named,” LoConte explains, “thanks to its sand—which appears an iridescent color as the sun sets—squeaking when walked upon.”
Other attractions and points of interest in the northeastern Massachusetts town include Agassiz Rock, Masconomo Park, Coolidge Reservation, Crow Island, Manchester Historical Museum, and Cathedral Pines.
For more information about North Shore Pride 2019, please head to http://www.northshorepride.org/.
Victoria LoConte is an emergency room staff nurse at CHA Everett Hospital in Everett, Massachusetts. She holds an associate’s degree in nursing, obtained from the Lawrence Memorial School of Nursing with Regis College and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Southern New Hampshire University. Prior to her current position, LoConte has also worked as an urgent care facility nurse manager, a case manager, and as a skilled visiting nurse serving the Greater Boston area. Her experience includes adult, geriatric, and pediatric care.
