News

Summer time has been busy

Summer has been a wonderfully busy time for us!

We had a nature walk with Species on the edge out in Shapinsay. The group walked to Mill Dam bird hide and had a picnic then back to the boat. We stopped and listened to the birds on the way taking a moment of quiet reflection to connect with nature. on our walk we spotted and learned about local flowers and wild life including and seals.

We had a joint event with Orkney Pride to have a watch party for Eurovision and it was a magnificent evening with amazing supporters cheering on all the wonderful finalists at the Orkney Distillery

Then it was time to celebrate Pride Month! What a whirlwind that was. We had an amazing day joining Orkney Pride for another amazing and successful day of showing support to the local community and join in with the annual march!

We did community out reach on Albert street in Kirkwall and at Stromness coop before going on to host a tabletop sale and a quiz night at the end of the month along with our usual Art group and Games club. A great time was had by all at the events. Then we rounded out the month with doing our first ever LGBT+ inclusion training for EMEC at a lunch and learn and it was a fantastic experience.

Fernvalley Tour

Back in March we did a group tour out to fernvalley and we had such an amazing time. Alex was our tour guide for the day and she did an amazing job, she was very knowledgeable and her love for the animals really shone through.

We got a talk about the meerkats, got to meet Dezzie the royal python and Norbert the bearded dragon as well as having a little walk about the centre before we stopped for lunch and a cuppa, it was a really great time had by all. Thank you to Fernvalley for having us and to all who came along for the day :)

Venue updates

We have had to a do a little moving around of events but every thing is still going on with as little delay as possible.

Starting from April our Art Group will be moving to the Guide hall on Thom street from 12-2pm every second Friday starting on the 4th, still all the same lovely though so come along

The board games group is doing the biggest move and will now be on the last Wedensday of the month at the Overblikk restaurant in Orkney college from 5:30pm to 8:30

For more information on these please have a look at our events page

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!

We have been here a whole year! What a journey it has been!

We have had an amazing first year! Hosting over 30 events over 10 months (2 months for boring paperwork), working with some amazing local and national organisations! Getting to know and build our community and support them. It has been a privilege to build this with and for our supporters and friends and we are so excited for year two!

We had a birthday party for all and it was great fun! lots of laughs and games, rejoicing with familiar faces, and getting to know new ones.

Thank you to everyone who came, has attended in the past, and has helped us on this path we truly appreciate it.

Pride Month

Wow, what a month June – and PiO’s very first Pride Month – was!

We started off with seeing the bunting from the Bunting Bonanza up all around Mainland Orkney – a huge thank you to everyone who made and displayed it. We held a nature walk with support from the Orkney Field Club that we thoroughly enjoyed, and we’d like to thank them for coming to brave the weather and share their expertise. We’ve also been spending time tidying the garden at the Blide all through June, regardless of sun or rain. We’ve laughed every day of it!

We were outside the Bank of Scotland in Kirkwall half-way through the month. We had a fantastic day saying hi to lots of new people as we hid from our glorious summer weather of freezing wind and rain under a borrowed gazebo – thank you ORSAS! - before getting ready for Orkney’s big Pride Weekend.

We would also like to thank the Pride Tribe for inviting us to their Pride Prom. It was great fun, and though we were weathered off a march, it was amazing to see a safe space for Orkney’s younger LGBT+ community thriving. We also found out that we’ve been successful in our application to become a registered Scottish Charity which is something we’ve been working towards since last December.

Then the pride weekend, wow, what a whirlwind of activity! We were at Orkney Pride’s Main Event on Saturday. We had an absolute blast and met so many great people before going on the march around Kirkwall. Then, to top it off, our finale for the month on Sunday was our Funday, which was absolutely phenomenal.

There are simply too many people to thank for coming along to help us make it a great day, and we cannot thank you all enough for it. From the stalls who supported us, and the folks who donated their time and expertise for the workshops, the stunning volunteers who were there all day giving their all. To all the local companies, organisations, and supporters that donated to the raffle, or provided supplies and home-bakes to the cafe. That’s not including all the amazing people who came along to enjoy the day and help make it a memory our team will cherish forever. We thank you all so, so much and we have adored every post, email, comment, and conversation saying what a wonderful weekend folks have had.

We hope this means good long-term things for the LGBT+ community here in Orkney, and we have many great plans for the future to help make that happen!

The PiO team!

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We are now a charity

As of the middle of June - Pride month how appropriate - we are an official OSCAR registered charity. With months of hard work behind us we just know this means better and better things for us and the community as a whole.

We have so many wonderful plans and we cant wait to work on them all and again we must say our thanks as ever we do to VAO and the Equality Network for supporting us on this part of our journey!