{"id":309327,"date":"2026-06-16T16:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/309327\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T16:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:14:23","slug":"photos-shuffle-with-pride-raises-over-10k-for-pflag-safety-harbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/309327\/","title":{"rendered":"PHOTOS: Shuffle with Pride raises over $10K for PFLAG Safety Harbor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan Casper (L) and Wendy Vernon at Shuffle with Pride. (Photo by Ryan Williams-Jent)<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG | The third annual Shuffle with Pride raised over $10,000 for PFLAG Safety Harbor<\/a> June 12 at the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club.<\/p>\n

The event is hosted by The Platinum Group of Smith & Associates Real Estate. Attendees enjoy local vendors, access to play Shuffleboard, music and more, with 100% of funds raised from beverage sales, silent auctions, raffles and donations benefiting the PFLAG chapter\u2019s work throughout the greater Pinellas County region.<\/p>\n

In addition to PFLAG Safety Harbor, this year\u2019s vendors included St Pete Pride<\/a>, currently celebrating 24 years<\/a>, Metro Healthy Communities<\/a>, the City of St. Petersburg and Equality Florida<\/a>. Held on the 10-year mark of the Pulse tragedy<\/a>, the gathering also remembered the 49 lives lost with a display of their names.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday and every day, we honor their memory,\u201d a sign also read.<\/p>\n

The Platinum Team\u2019s Dan Casper<\/a> reflected on Shuffle with Pride June 15, revealing this year\u2019s fundraising total.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we sat down four years ago and started talking about doing an event at St. Pete Shuffle for Pride, we all agreed that the emphasis had to be about the community,\u201d he shared. \u201cIt needed to be a celebration of the people that make our city so great. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know I found myself more than once standing off to the side and taking in all the love and joy that was emanating from those in attendance,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt was a humbling experience to be able to say we created a space that filled so many people with joy, happiness and Pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casper noted that \u201cthe community showed tremendous generosity\u201d during the event, showing up \u201cin a big way for an organization that\u2019s mission is to help build safe communities that support LGBTQ+ people.\u201d The result was over $10,000 raised.<\/p>\n

Casper thanked attendees, vendors, event volunteers \u2014 which included St. Petersburg City Councilmember Brandi Gabbard<\/a>, also a candiadate for mayor \u2014 and all donors. <\/p>\n

The fundraising total \u201cfar exceeded our expectations,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the bottom of our hearts we can\u2019t thank you all enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past three years, Shuffle With Pride has brought our community together for a night of joy, celebration and connection,\u201d says PFLAG Safety Harbor Founder and President Wendy Vernon<\/a>. \u201cWe are incredibly grateful to Dan Casper for his commitment to making this event happen year after year and for creating a space where people feel welcomed, seen and celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

She notes that over $25,000 has been raised for the organization since the event\u2019s inception, funds that fuel critical work.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a 100% volunteer-led organization, every dollar raised goes directly back into the community through community dinners, events, mutual aid, and programs supporting LGBTQ+ individuals and families throughout Greater Pinellas,\u201d Vernon says. <\/p>\n

Learn more about PFLAG Safety Harbor at PFLAGSafetyHarbor.org<\/a> and visit ThePlatinumGroup.SmithAndAssociates.com<\/a> for more on information about The Platinum Group. View our photos from this year\u2019s Shuffle with Pride below.<\/p>\n

Photos by Ryan Williams-Jent.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Casper (L) and Wendy Vernon at Shuffle with Pride. (Photo by Ryan Williams-Jent) ST. PETERSBURG | The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3300,129051,56912,76036,39183,129052,36343,129053,202,204,203,3939,199,201,200,114754,129054,124904],"class_list":["post-309327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-brandi-gabbard","tag-dan-casper","tag-equality-florida","tag-metro-healthy-communities","tag-nathan-bruemmer","tag-pflag-safety-harbor","tag-pulse","tag-shuffle-with-pride","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-pete-pride","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-st-petersburg-shuffleboard-club","tag-the-platinum-group","tag-wendy-vernon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}