Gay pride parade takes place in Buffalo Grove, its young founder heads to college and passes the torch – Chicago Tribune

Molly Pinta was in middle school when she founded the gay pride parade in Buffalo Grove – the first in the village. Now a young adult and heading to college later this summer, she’s passing the reins of the ever-changing annual parade to her parents.

On June 2, 2019, shortly before the first parade began, Pinta, who was 13 at the time, stood on a road in Buffalo Grove that morning as a seventh-grader, posing with her parents Bob and Carolyn Pinta for a family portrait.

Since then, the Buffalo Grove Pride Parade has been an important milestone for the Pinta family, who now live in Prairie View. The parade format has adapted over the years, moving to a drive-in event during the COVID-19 pandemic and then another reconfiguration of the parade route, including that of this year’s June 2 parade.

“I’m really handing the entire project over to my parents,” Molly Pinta told the Pioneer Press. “I will serve the world by caring for animals, but my parents will continue this work in the future.”

Now 18, Molly graduated this year from Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire and was again photographed on the parade route with her family — bringing the family full circle, they said .

Molly is headed to the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri to pursue a career as a veterinarian.

“Every year I will be home in time to help them during the parade weekend and I look forward to cheering them on,” Molly said.

The gay pride parade and the Pinta Pride Project, a nonprofit organization, will continue but will be run by parents Carolyn and Bob Pinta.

“She’s completely passing the reins to mom and dad to continue this project,” Carolyn Pinta said.

This year’s Pride Parade had 95 participants and “was the best yet,” Carolyn Pinta said, with about 5,000 participants. The theme was “Take Us to the Polls.”

Among the participants this year was the local chapter of the League of Women Voters.

“If people don’t vote, LGBTQ rights will be the first to be threatened by a Republican administration,” said Carolyn Pinta. “Terrifying times. »

Bob Pinta said it would be important for people to be able to vote.

“It is imperative that we not only vote, but get others to vote as well,” he said.

On the college campus, Molly plans to continue advocating for the LGBTQ community.

“At Mizzou, I plan to be a very serious student and someone who will always support my own LGBTQ community, but it is not my destiny to lead a (gay) pride group,” said Molly.

Looking back on the launch of the Pinta Pride Project in 2018, Molly said: “I’m thrilled that queer teens and families in my area look forward to the parade every year and it’s pretty exciting to think it all started with me . .

“But my parents and I started this work when I was so young that it felt more like ‘what we do’ rather than something that made me feel accomplished.”

Karie Angell Luc is independent.