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Laguna Beach Pride 365 hopes to raise funds for Laguna Food Pantry with virtual drag bingo

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Craig Cooley used to manage a local bar in Laguna Beach called the Main Street Bar and Cabaret.

Having worked in the hotel and hospitality industries for 35 years, it has been difficult for Cooley to see the struggles of the hospitality and service industries due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic has resulted in modified business models and staff reductions for a line of work Cooley estimates supplies about a third of Laguna Beach jobs.

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To show support for those who have come on hard times because of the virus, Cooley and Laguna Beach Pride 365 are out to show that the community cares.

Laguna Beach Pride 365 will put on a virtual drag bingo event themed “Laguna Beach Cares,” a free-to-play fundraiser on Thursday at 6 p.m. The night is slated to have 10 games of bingo hosted by Endora, a local female impersonator.

“When we do the drag bingo, we usually have some nice prizes,” said Cooley, the president of Laguna Beach Pride 365. “[Endora] calls bingo, and she makes some comments about it to make it fun, and then she might go off on a story about herself. It’s always tasteful, but there’s a lot of innuendo to make it entertaining.”

Cooley and Endora will run the show from the Promenade on Forest, which has provided an outdoor shopping and dining experience for people in downtown Laguna Beach since June.

“We’re going to do it down on the Promenade and hopefully showcase some of the businesses down there,” Cooley said, hoping that it will encourage people to shop local. “It’s virtual bingo, not a meeting or group, and the city was very specific about that.

“What I am so pleased about is both the City Council went over and endorsed it completely, and so did the Chamber of Commerce. Both of those entities, we got their full support on it, which I think is pretty remarkable in itself.”

People will have a chance to play for prizes. There will also be opportunities to donate. Laguna Beach Pride 365 has a goal of raising $10,000 from the evening, with the proceeds going to the Laguna Food Pantry. Information on the event and how to donate can be found at lagunabeachpride.org.

“We would use the money toward purchasing milk and eggs and produce to supplement what we rescue from 12 local grocery stores and then what we also get from the food banks — Orange County Food Bank and Second Harvest Food Bank,” said Anne Belyea, the executive director of the Laguna Food Pantry.

Belyea said that the Laguna Food Pantry has seen demand for groceries grow substantially since the pandemic. The pantry went from 2,100 family shopping visits in February to 3,400 visits in August. Families that come to the food pantry receive about 50 pounds of groceries, Belyea added.

The drag bingo event marks the first time that Laguna Beach Pride 365 and the Laguna Food Pantry have partnered.

“There are so many people that are in our lines since the pandemic hit that tell us they never imagined that they would be in a line to get food for themselves and their families,” Belyea said. “This is unprecedented, and we’re grateful to Laguna Beach Pride to want to fundraise and help support the efforts to make sure that all these people with food insecurities are provided with food.”

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