The City of Fountains Sisters’ third annual Pub Crawl will begin at 7 p.m. Oct. 26, and this year’s theme is Purgatory. The group is affiliated with the international Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Andy Chambers, otherwise known as Sister Glamarama Ding Dong, spoke to us about this year’s pub crawl and other events on the Sisters schedule. Glamarama describes his role in the Sisters this way: “I am the abbess of the house and I’m the mistress of novices. So I help train novices and I answer questions.”
He says the first Pub Crawl organized by Sister Cupcake as his novice project was successful, and then the second one was even more successful, with more people. The first one was for his novice project.
“You do a novice project to move forward to elevate to the fully professed status,” he explained.
The event will be a fundraiser for Hope Care Center, a Kansas City AIDS service provider and hospice house, Glamarama said.
He said that most of the 21 sisters in the group, or house, who are available that night will join the fun on the buses.
“We usually ride along to kind of entertain on the bus and keep track of what’s going on and make sure people get back on the bus and that sort of thing. And it’s a pub crawl. So we do Jell-O shots or something on the bus. It’s silly. There’s usually candy ’cause it’s Halloween, with music, lights or whatever we can do on a bus.”
This year, the event will have two buses to accommodate more people.
“Tickets are $40 and that gets you entry into the bars,” he said. “And usually the bars do drink specials or something special. And then we usually have a special secret stop. We’ve been to a really cool art party here in Westport. We went last year to the St. Francis, which is owned by Michael Stringer over in Northeast and he welcomed all 32 of us in, and we went through that big old entire building and there was drinks and food. … We had a great time.”
Glamarama said their group has grown in only a few years, but it’s not as large or small as other cities’ groups. “We’re a fairly small house by comparison to, you know, like Louisville. I think they have 56 people, but there’s only a handful that still manifest regularly. So that’d be considered a larger house. San Francisco has over 400 people, so we don’t really compare ourselves to any other house because every location is different. Some houses have three people.”
Glamarama said they’ve had participants in their house from other cities, such as Lawrence, Topeka and St. Joseph. Columbia is considering forming its own, he said, and Wichita has recently formed its own mission house called the Emerald City Sisters.
“So if you have a large enough community, I think it’s better that you focus on your community rather than go into another community. Wichita has a pretty good-size LGBTQ+ community, so they may as well focus there. I mean, that’s the way I feel about it. They’ll certainly come here and we go there, but the fact that they can form a house there and really do good for their community is far more viable, I feel.”
The Sisters make many appearances around the area during Pride month in June, but also throughout the year. Glamarama said that during the weeklong Gay Softball World Series in Kansas City in September, he went to four different events on different days manifested as Sister Glamarama Ding Dong.
The Sisters had to split into two groups on Sept. 14 to attend two events that day – the Topeka Pride in a Park and St. Joseph Pride festival and parade.
Glamarama said they are holding a “Whatever Floats Your Boat” ice cream and root beer float social at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at Sidestreets bar for Bisexual Visibility Day.
“It is just to raise awareness about bisexuality in our community, which seems to get overlooked,” he said. Glamarama said that Sister Evelyn Disguise is the point sister on this event. .
They are also having a Sisters National Coming Out Day event at 7 p.m. on Oct. 12 at Missie B’s. He said this would be Sister I’gnomee Truth’s novice project, called “Living Your Truth,” and will benefit the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth, and Kansas City’s LGBTQ Youth Prom. “That’s a day later than National Coming Out Day,” he said, but that was when Missie B’s was available for the event.
“So our sisters sometimes have pet projects or charities that they really appreciate,” Glamarama said. “And so they, of course, are encouraged to pick out a charity that maybe is off the mainstream.
“It’s all about service and interacting with your LGBTQ+ community and doing what’s best for them, to really listen to their needs.”.”