Welcome! Scroll down to learn more about Spring Fling 14.
The event is open to the public. Make reservations by using one of the links below.
Spring Fling 2023, “Bending the Arc”, will be a delightful evening fashioned after an exotic Bazaar, with international food, music, and entertainment, headlined by the DC6 Singers Collective, an LA-based ensemble of dynamic and energetic a capella, gospel, and Motown singers. There will also be a silent auction, as well as the presentation of two Bloom’s Social Justice Awards to both a local activist and to an organization whose work may not yet be well known but deserves recognition.
Differing from past Flings, the event will be more interactive, encouraging attendees to mix and mingle as they stroll the event space and encounter "tents" dedicated to food, drink, auction items, information about Bloom, and a town square for entertainment.
Funds from this event support Bloom’s work in the community as a not-for-profit, religious institution dedicated to inclusion and justice striving to be a safe and nurturing space, “welcoming all who welcome all.” Bloom’s commitment to Social Action and Mission work in the Coachella Valley is reflected in its outreach programs.
Click the link below to make your reservation to attend or to donate to Bloom.
Welcome to "Bending the Arc" - Bloom's Spring Fling 14
The evening's headline entertainment! The DC6 Singers Collective is an LA-based A Capella, Gospel, and Motown group.
DC6 Singers Collective is a Los Angeles-based collective of dynamic, energetic, and professional singers providing custom entertainment by breathing new life into classic and current pop standards ranging from Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder to Adele and Bruno Mars. The collective focuses on A cappella, Gospel, and Motown music styles and will be providing a fun, soulful, and eargasmic experience for us as the headline talent for the evening's event.
Bloom's Community Justice Award Recipients for 2023
Mily Treviño-Sauceda
Mily Treviño-Sauceda is the Executive Director and Co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (National Association of Farmworker Women). She co-founded “Mujeres Mexicanas,” in 1988, the pioneer campesinas group that led to building the Power of the Collective and create the idea to a campesinas’ movement; and also co-founded Líderes Campesinas in 1992, the first state-based farmworker women’s unique grass roots organization advocating on behalf of campesinas where she served as Executive Director for over 12 years.
Mily has worked for over 40 years on farmworker issues as she joined as a member and organizer of the UFW; and then on women’s issues in the state of California, nationally, and internationally.
Brothers of the Desert
Brothers of the Desert (BOD) is a non-profit organization, which provides a growing network of support for Black gay men and allies in the Coachella Valley. Our mission is to “nurture and support Black gay men and allies through philanthropy, volunteerism, mentorship, education, advocacy, and social networking. Our purpose is to change the dynamics that produce isolation, disconnection, and inequities among Black gay men here.
Rosa was the recipient of the Community Justice Award in 2017. Rosa has been involved in justice issues since she was a teenager. She was a founding board member of the Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine, and in 2010, helped open a free medical clinic in the East Valley, serving poor, uninsured or under-insured Riverside County residents. Rosa’s latest efforts for justice started in 2015. With the blessing of the CVVIM, the “street medicine team” started to go out with backpacks of supplies and medicine to serve the medical needs of homeless persons,
wherever they were in the East Valley.
Aaron Walton is CEO/co-founder of Walton Isaacson (WI), a full-service advertising agency, with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and New York, which prioritizes diversity of thinking, encouraging disruption, and creating strategic solutions that defy tradition, such as engineering the partnership between automaker Lexus and Marvel Studios for the international blockbuster film, Black Panther. That campaign received multiple diversity recognition awards. Aaron’s commitment to valuing differences and building cultural inclusion brought recognition from Advertising Age, Black Enterprise, Inc. magazine, OUT magazine, the Hispanic Public Relations Association, The Internationalist, and many
others. ADCOLOR, one of the industry’s most influential diversity change agents, recognized Aaron with an Advocacy Award for his contributions to the LGBTQ community. Business Equality Magazine named him a Pride Legacy Leader. In 2021, he was named to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation Board. Walton previously served on the Board of GLAAD from 2009-2011.
Emcee for the night's festvities : Darci Daniels!
Darci is a spectacularly talented artist with a glamorous vocal versatility. Her relaxed, easy style will capture your immediate attention and have you listening from start to finish
EVENT LOCATION:
Palm Springs Pavilion
401 S. Pavilion Way
Palm Springs, CA. 92262
Plenty of Parking onsite
Click map for directions
PRESS RELEASE
Bloom in the Desert Ministries UCC
Palm Springs, California
For Immediate Release
February 10, 2023
Contact Rev. Kevin A. Johnson
760-992-4346
Local Justice Leaders to be Honored March 10 in Palm Springs
Palm Springs, California – Coachella Valley leaders of women farmworkers and black gay men
will be honored for their justice work at the 14th annual Spring Fling and Silent Auction
fundraiser benefiting Bloom in the Desert Ministries UCC (Bloom) of Palm Springs, March 10,
2023, starting at 5:30 pm, at the Palm Springs Pavilion. All are welcome to make paid
reservations and find more information at https://bloominthedesert.org/spring-fling-14/.
The 9th annual Community Justice Award honorees include Mily Treviño-Sauceda, of Thousand
Palms, California, executive director of the National Alliance of Farmworker Women, a
nonprofit organization advocating for the safety and rights of women laborers in agriculture.
Also, for the first time an organization is being honored with this justice award. Brothers of the
Desert, a Palm Springs non-profit community group, was selected for local advocacy supporting
Black gay men and their allies.
Event chairs Elaine Wang-Meyerhoffer and Paul Gibb report, “This will be an evening of justice
and joy. We are back in person after online Fling events for two years. The setting will be unlike
any previous Spring Fling.” Justice award committee chair Mike Termini says, “Promoting the
lives of farmworker women and Black Gay men perfectly fits our inclusive church’s mission,
which includes agitating for God’s peace and justice in our communities and around the world.”
The Rev. Dr. Kevin A. Johnson, Bloom’s co-founding pastor, offers: “Our ministry focus
honoring community justice is unique. Previous awardees embodied community justice work for
peacemaking, healthcare, marriage equality, women’s rights, LGBTQIA youth empowerment,
affordable housing environmental standards, life-long justice and faith advocacy, and asylum
seekers.”
Under the 2023 theme, “Bending the Arc: Embracing our Core Values,” custom designed and
installed décor by Anthos Design will transform the Pavilion into a festive bazaar featuring
international foods, music, the awards, raffles, and shopping. The entertainment headliner is the
DC6 Singers Collective, an LA-based vocal a Capella ensemble singing dynamic and energetic
gospel and Motown tunes. Emcee Darci Daniels will host the evening including Strong Words
story tellers, DJ Tina Turntables, Too Tall Tomm on stilts, the silent auction, festival booths
hosting various justice ministries, and food from four local vendors. More information about
Bloom and this event is at bloominthedesert.org.