After the snow finally melted from her driveway, Sister Gloria opened the Pumpkin Priory for manifestation and was joined by Sisters Aria Inyette and Rosetta Stone, Guard Harry Magdalene (with a ‘y’), and Postulant Isaiah Prayer. Queer music was played, seltzers were drunk, and postulants were shown how to throw shade – courtesy of Rosie and Glo.
After departing for the Arlington Street Church and the fourth annual Valentines Card Making event, the crew met up with Sister Tori D’Affair, Guard Ian Knight, and the event’s coordinators Bryan and Art. The Sisters, being veterans of this event, like clockwork, began their duties – folding the brightly colored paper into card shapes, organizing tables and ensuring each had proper supplies, manning the sign-in and name tag table, and giving everyone a raffle ticket for the six door prizes we handed out throughout the day.
At 1:00, the crowd began to arrive and faster than you can say “Valentimes is serious times,” the room was packed! After a quick introduction to The Sisters by Abbess Aria, to FriendshipWorks by Bryan, and to Gay4Good by Art, the crew began making Valentines cards which, through FriendshipWorks, will be distributed to nursing homes and housebound elderly persons throughout the city of Boston and its suburbs – just one small way to make sure that these people, who might not have anyone else on the holiday, know that someone was thinking of them. A beautiful and worthy cause if ever there was one.
In order to keep morale up, Sister Rosetta took to the stage after each 100 cards made, announced the new total, and raffled off a small door prize including small electronic accessories and two amazing candy gift baskets.
After three hours of work, the event began to wrap up. First, The Sisters performed their annual tradition of “blessing” Bryan each giving him a kiss on the cheek and leaving our lip-print on him – he looks forward to it every year. Then Art and Rosie announced the grand total – seven-hundred and twenty cards were made!! This destroyed the original goal of a mere five-hundred. Then, Sister Gloria, without a microphone to be had, formed her hands into a cone and shouted “GROUP PHOTO!!!!” Everyone assembled into a giant clump and pictures were taken – another annual tradition.
The tables and chairs were cleaned, folded up, and put away. The leftover supplies were organized by the more anal-retentive Nuns (we will let you guess which ones) to be used again next year. Floors were swept. And then – sadly – goodbyes were said. The Nuns piled into their cars and headed back to the Pumpkin Priory to demanifest, gossip about the event, drink more seltzers, and eat taquitos!
This is an event that Gay4Good, FriendshipWorks, and The Sisters all love dearly and we can’t wait to do it again next year. There was even talk of finding a larger venue in order to accommodate more people!!
