2023 Annual Lake Erie Gala Hosted by the Erie Sisters and Brothers of Erie, PA

It was another very successful year for the 92 Transgender/Cross-Dressing Ladies, their spouses, significant others, speakers, and vendors attending the 24th Annual Lake Erie Gala hosted by the Erie Sisters and Brothers at the Sheraton Erie Bayfront Property last November.

It was a great time, starting with a Welcome to the Gala with Bang party on Wednesday night. This year, we changed it up from Pizza to a Soup and Sandwich Buffet. It was a great hit and will be a new tradition for Wednesday nights. Thursday during the day, 27 beautiful ladies boarded a Coach bus, and toured around Presque Isle, stopping at the Presque Isle Lighthouse and grounds, followed by a delicious lunch and wine tasting at Arundel Winery located in North East PA. Thursday's dinner theme paid homage to the West Side Story where the ladies strapped on their best pair of dancing shoes and dined on a delicious Spanish themed dinner. After dinner, they danced the night away with our own Erie Sister DJ Brittany. Friday was a big day for outings starting in the morning with 29 ladies hopping on the bus for a tour and a fun interactive group project at The Erie Art Museum followed by a lunch and beer tasting at John Russell Brewing Company. That night a shuttle of 10 ladies and a car of 5 went over to the All an Act Theatre to view the comedic drama play called "Jake's Women". While another bus of 15 ladies took a short trip over to Kellar's Magic and Comedy Club for a thrilling magic show with Blake Vogt.

Saturday was a very active day for all starting off with Journal Your Dreams Breakfast Experience with Liz Tattersall where she shared tips, tools, inspiration, and more to uncover the power of journaling your vision and dreams so that you can live your best life. Next up was Money and Mimosas with Beth McKinley. Participants joined Beth with mimosas and she shared tips about SMART money habits that can help ensure a stable financial future by aligning money decisions with the participants' values, they could discover opportunity costs, and have a process for making wise money choices. Once again we had the beautiful Michelle Popkov with her session on Enhancing Your MTF Presentation. Her seminar was aimed at novices sharing some basic tips on developing a feminine presentation. Those tips could provide the participant countermeasures to take on life in public as a woman, building confidence, and avoid natural traps that could potentially give them away. For Saturday's lunch 13 Cis-Gender Spouses/Cis-Gender S/O's hopped the hotel shuttle for an amazing lunch at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen in Erie PA while the rest of the beauties dined on a Slider buffet at the hotel. The same afternoon was also fun filled, starting with Fun Story Time with JoAnn. 13 ladies shared some of their funniest stories of their various outings as a feminine lady. It was so much fun that it was widely requested to be held again next year. Then the afternoon ended with The Vanity Club, the oldest and most dedicated sorority organization of transgender women in the world holding an open to all reception. The day ended with a 50's Sock Hop where 92 ladies squeezed into those leather pants or shimmed on the poodle skirts and saddle shoes. They enjoyed a Buffet Dinner and a 3 layer JukeBox cake with 2-1/2 sheet cakes made by Liz Millspaugh. (https://www.facebook.com/BizzyLizzysBakery) After dinner they "hopped" the rest of the night to the entertainment provided by Matty and Dirty Pickles (www.facebook.com/thedirtyPickles). What a day!!! Sadely, once again all the fun ended on Sunday with a "Farewell Breakfast". Thank you to all that attended this year and best wishes to see all again next year.

This year, we started a new tradition of having a Memorial table at each meal held at the host hotel for those that have crossed over the Rainbow bridge complete with an electronic picture frame with their revolving pictures. If you know of anyone that has crossed over the rainbow bridge. Please send a clear jpeg picture and a brief biography and their affiliations with the community to info@lakeeriegala.com.

Special thank you to our speakers and vendors:

• Liz Tattersall, Certified Health and Life Coach, HCI
• Beth McKinley, Roots Financial Group at Thrivent
• Scarlett, owner of Scarlett's Makeovers
• Amy Lamb, owner of Just You
• Michelle Popkov, who gave us a very informative seminar in MTF presentation.
• Diane Crow, owner of Portraits by Diane Crow
• Bobbie Czerwinski, Independent Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay
• Jodi Turri, Independent Consultant for Touchstone Crystal
• Kimberly Casey, Paparazzi Consultant and owner of Kim's Glorious Design
• Brad Gerow, PharmD, Chief of Philanthropy and Development
• Rachel McShane, Voice Coach with Vocality Speech Therapy

To obtain contact information about the Erie Sisters and Brothers group or the above vendors/speakers, you can email Info@lakeeriegala.com or www.lakeeriegala.com.

Currently, the Erie Sisters and Brothers event coordinator is working on the 2024 year which will include the starting up again of monthly/every other month meetings in Erie, PA, Cabin Fever in February, Princess Dinner Cruise in June and ending the year again in November with a very special 25th annual Lake Erie Gala. So stay tuned!

Photos

Also view photos here.