\t\t\t\t\tOverview: Bears San Diego<\/p>\n
Through tons of annual events, they have raised thousands for nonprofits like Special Delivery San Diego, which prepares and delivers meals to people with life-threatening illnesses.<\/p>\n
Bears San Diego has been recognized for over 30 years of fundraising and volunteering with the Community Service Award.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through tons of annual events, they have raised thousands for nonprofits like Special Delivery San Diego, which prepares and delivers meals to people with life-threatening illnesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The social and service organization was founded in 1994 by five individuals who felt left out of the mainstream gay community because they did not look like the twinks or muscle people, according to Bears treasurer Donnie Vella. Members joked the group was an island of misfit toys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was established by five individuals who felt that they needed a group where they can be together with other like-minded individuals \u2026 They felt more like they belonged there \u2026 They wouldn\u2019t be judged based on their body style or the way they looked,\u201d Vella said. \u201cThe Bears have always welcomed anybody.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, the club has grown to over 75 members.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They have events at least once or twice a week like bowling, karaoke nights and barbecues. Through annual fundraisers like the chili cookoff or mac n\u2019 cheese contest, the group has raised thousands for charity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Bears host a contest each year for title holders who represent them in the community and direct some of their work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year, both titleholders are transgender, so much of their volunteering has focused on raising funds for organizations like Trans Lifeline. Mr. San Diego Bear 2025 Jimmy Trimble and the new non-gendered title Leather Bear, won by Trimble\u2019s partner Gio, have helped the Bears find out the needs of local trans organizations and help to meet them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After decades of feeling left out of the most visible parts of the LGBTQ+ community, the organization is thrilled to win an award from Pride<\/a>, one of the largest local LGBTQ+ nonprofits in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo be recognized by Pride after all of these years, it means a lot,\u201d Vella said.\u00a0<\/p>\n See more of our Pride coverage here<\/a>, or page through the viewer here<\/a> to enjoy the print edition of the 2025 Pride Guide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: Bears San Diego Through tons of annual events, they have raised thousands for nonprofits like Special Delivery…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":63155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,45170,1582,276,5603,3549,40461,7264,45171,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-63154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bears-san-diego","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-lgbtq","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-pride","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-special-delivery-san-diego","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114847942165618854","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}