RISE UP TO ELIMINATE GUN VIOLENCE!

BECOME A SPONSOR OF BLACK PRIDE VEGAS & TOGETHER WE WILL HELP ELIMINATE GUN VIOLENCE.

Info.vegasblackpride@gmail.com

Drop The Guns Pick Up A Ball

Every year during Vegas Black Pride Festival we host a celebrity basketball charity game. “Drop The Guns, Pick Up A Ball”. It brings awareness to gun violence, focusing on eliminating hate crimes and providing free resources to our black communities. The event utilizes Celebrity Sport Influencers to encourage sportsmanship, physical health, and teamwork while discouraging gun violence among our youth. This cause is near & dear to our Founder Johanna P. Perez as her mother was gunned down at the age of 7 leaving behind 6 kids. Her being the 2nd to the oldest. Her grandmother Dessie Lee Walker took them all in. Johanna witnessed what it was like to see 1 person struggle trying to keep a family together. Instead of Johanna running away to the streets like her mind was telling her because the pain of losing her mother seemed unbearable, she tuned to basketball stating “Basketball saved her life”. She took her anger to the courts and her frustrations made her determined to win games. But the love of the game healed her pain. The way her coach, team and fans loved her, guided her, and motivated her it showed her she no longer had to hold pain in her heart. Basketball not only saved her but also her sisters. They all joined the team and from then on she has wanted to do the same for others. When she got the opportunity to found pride the very first thing she did was created a community event like no other. Called it “Drop The Guns, Pick Up A Ball” and dedicated it to her mother Juanita Walker and her grandmother Dessie. She stated “No mother should loose their kids to gun violence so we must bring awareness to it to put a stop to it!” We must bring resources to help grandmothers that are left with the motherless children. This is why we give away basketballs, bikes, and gifts. To help the kids get to school, get to practice and the parents can get the help everybody forgot they needed. For the most part Johanna wanted to give other children that went through loosing a parent a outlet to be able to heal like her.

Black Pride Vegas is bringing awareness to gun violence, eliminating hate crimes and providing resources to our black community. In promoting mutual respect and tolerance sports teaches important social skills. Sports have been a affective tool in keeping youth from falling into a cycle of violence and crime. We are dedicated to making a change in our black communities.

RESOURCES THROUGH COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

We connect our Community Partners with our guests. They can receive resources they might not have been able to get to not knowing where to go to find them. In some cases they get assistance right on the spot as far as Covid testing, HIV Testing, sign up for housing, groceries and so much more. We appreciate our Community Partners because without them we wouldn’t be able to make a direct impact in our black communities.

Highlighted above are some previous Community Partners of Black Pride Vegas.