{"id":150983,"date":"2026-09-10T21:07:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T01:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=150983"},"modified":"2026-09-10T21:07:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T01:07:56","slug":"annual-awards-reception-celebrating-pride-community-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=150983","title":{"rendered":"Annual Awards Reception &#8211; Celebrating Pride, Community &#038; Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Lehigh Valley, PA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The LGBTQ Business Council of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce will host its\u00a0<strong>Ninth Annual LGBTQ Awards Reception on Friday, October 16, 2026<\/strong>, bringing together the LGBTQ community, advocates, community leaders, and allies for an evening dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ contributions and supporting the continued strength of the community.<\/p>\n<p>The semi-formal reception will take place from\u00a0<strong>6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Centennial Conference Center at Homewood Suites<\/strong>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/search\/3350+Center+Valley+Parkway,+Center+Valley,+PA+18034?entry=gmail&amp;source=g\">3350 Center Valley Parkway, Center Valley, PA 18034<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s celebration, themed\u00a0<strong>\u201cCamp, Couture &amp; Pride,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0will embrace queer joy, self-expression, and\u00a0unapologetic\u00a0individuality. Inspired by the glamour and spectacle of a Met Gala-style experience, guests are encouraged to bring their most playful, bold, and fashion-forward looks to an evening celebrating authenticity and pride.<\/p>\n<p>This special evening also coincides with\u00a0<strong>National Coming Out Day<\/strong>, adding even more meaning as we honor authenticity, courage, and the power of living out loud. The event will feature live entertainment, DJ, delicious spread of hearty hors d\u2019oeuvres, desserts by Sweet Girlz Bakery, and much more!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Award Acknowledgments:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ally of the Year \u2013\u00a0<strong>Marci Martinez-Howey, United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Business of the Year \u2013\u00a0<strong>Gross McGinley LLP<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Heart of the Community Award \u2013\u00a0<strong>Lesbians Connect LLC\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Community Grant Recipient\u00a0&#8211; Announcement Coming Soon!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Who:<\/u>\u00a0The LGBTQ Business Council of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>What<\/u>: LGBTQ Annual Awards &amp; Reception<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>When<\/u>: Friday, October 16, 2026 &#8211; 6:00 PM &#8211; 9:00 PM<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Where<\/u>:\u00a0Centennial Conference Center at Homewood Suites,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/search\/3350+Center+Valley+Parkway,+Center+Valley,+PA+18034?entry=gmail&amp;source=g\">3350 Center Valley Parkway, Center Valley, PA 18034<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Pricing Info:<\/u>\u00a0$75 Member Ticket, $140 Future Member Ticket<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sponsored by:\u00a0<\/strong>Crayola, EBC Printing &amp; Signs, Gross McGinley LLC, HNL Lab, Magellan Financial Inc, RKL, Sweet Girlz Bakery, and Wind Creek Bethlehem.<strong><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>About The Chamber<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The Chamber\u2019s mission is to improve the economy and quality of communities in the Lehigh Valley.\u00a0\u00a0Serving more than 5,000 businesses and members\u00a0with more than than 280,000, the Chamber is the largest in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in the top six nationwide. Our thirty-plus affiliated chambers, councils and committees are On Every Main Street with more than 1,500 community focused volunteers who actively contribute, at the grass roots, to develop and achieve their respective and collective goals.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nBrittany Keal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lehigh Valley, PA\u00a0\u2013 The LGBTQ Business Council of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce will host its\u00a0Ninth Annual LGBTQ Awards Reception on Friday, October 16, 2026, bringing together the LGBTQ community, advocates, community leaders, and allies for an evening dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ contributions and supporting the continued strength of the community. The semi-formal &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=150983\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Annual Awards Reception &#8211; Celebrating Pride, Community &#038; Impact<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/lgbt-26-awards.jpg?fit=672%2C372&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150986,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150983\/revisions\/150986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/150984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}