Whilst in the midst of South Africa's lockdown in June, Cape Town's favourite dinosaur-themed restaurant, The Raptor Room, received permission from the City of Cape Town to paint the Pride Flag on the pavement outside the beloved eatery on Roeland Street. The Raptor Room is an active member of the queer community in the Mother City, providing a space of safety, nourishment and entertainment for LGTBQIA+ folks and allies alike. They wanted the eye-catching "Pridewalk" to be a "symbol of strength" for South Africa's vibrant, tight-knit LGBTQIA+ family and an everlasting reminder that "no matter who you are, you will always have a safe space to be your authentic self on Roeland Street."
Acquiring enough red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple paint to cover the entire section of Roeland Street was going to be quite costly, so the Raptor Room team turned to other local businesses and members of their community for help with raising the funds. They arranged a raffle of awesome items from South African brands that would take place live on social media. Orms was among the Capetonian participants that donated prizes for the raffle: two Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 Instant Film Cameras, one in pink and one in blue (naturally!), each accompanied by four boxes of film.
With such a great range of prizes, it was no surprise that the R20k goal was quickly met! Finally, after many weeks of waiting for lockdown levels and Cape Town weather to align, the Pridewalk painting event was booked for Saturday the 24th of October. A team of "Raptor Roomies" from Orms was quick to book a spot and headed down, armed with a 5D Mark III and their most suitable painting outfits.
Congratulations to the Raptor Room team and the South African LGBTQIA+ community for bringing this awesome concept to fruition! You can follow our friends at the Raptor Room on their Instagram. If you would like to read up about some of the other incredible initiatives Orms has been a part of, take a look here on the blog.
Images by J. T. Semple & Silke Brand
