'You have to have lunch delivered by drag entertainers at least once in your life': fundraiser organizer
Winnipeg's emerging drag queens and kings want to deliver you lunch — for a good cause.
The Like That program at Sunshine House is taking orders online for its third annual taco sale until the end of the day Monday, with deliveries to go out over the lunch hour Thursday.
The bannock-shell tacos will be hand-delivered to recipients' workplaces and homes between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. by about a dozen drag kings and queens from the Like That program.
"I think that our queens and our kings are really stepping it up this year. This is going to be an exciting day and I think that everybody should experience this at least once in their lives," said Bobbi Hudon, the program's volunteer co-ordinator.
"Like, you have to have lunch delivered to you by drag entertainers at least once in your life."
Every Monday and Wednesday, dozens of Like That participants can discover their gender and sexual identity in a safe and inclusive setting, in part by exploring drag and performing.
The program operates out of Sunshine House, a community drop-in centre at Logan Avenue and Sherbrook Street that focuses on harm reduction, population health promotion and community building.
For some of Thursday's taco delivery volunteers, it could be one of their first public appearances in drag, Hudon said.
"A lot of them will wind up being new kings or queens or anything in between, and so this may be one of their first opportunities to go out into the community and immerse themselves with supporters of the Like That program," he said.
"This is their way of expressing themselves internally, but it also works as outreach externally, so we're able to create community through these new queens and these new kings."
Hudon said this year's taco sale aims to raise more than it made last year, which was around $2,000.
"It certainly allows us to continue running our program," he said. "We don't receive grants for it and it is participant-driven, so we ourselves as the participants raise the funds to be able to continue what it is that we're doing."
Like That participants host a variety of other fundraisers throughout the year, including a Drag Queen Bingo series every two months at the Good Will, with the next event scheduled for May 14.
