FLoatarama has the wind at its back and is full steam ahead, giving back to the LGBTQ community. At Hunters Nightclub on Oct. 10, they distributed $110,000 to organizations helping LGBTQ youth.

Hundreds packed the bar for the event, hosted by local activist Jacob Reide Jennings. FLoatarama has been making waves in the local nonprofit community. What started in June 2020 as a pandemic band-aid to have some sort of Pride parade has blossomed into an annual Pride kickoff event that raises money for local causes.

The mood in the room was joyous.

This year’s total set a record for the young organization, up from $75,000 in 2023. The total raised over three years is $252,134.

The eight benefiting organizations are:

- Essential Haus ($10,000 funding LGBTQIA+ Violence Healing program) 
- Out My Closet ($10,000 funding the Changing Room project) 
- PRISM ($10,000 funding Content Creation Task Force) 
- The McKenzie Project ($10,000 funding Clean Start program) 
- Jewish Community Services of South Florida ($15,000 funding LGBTQIA+ Youth program)
- South Florida Pride Youth Band ($15,000 funding youth band and soloist scholarship) 
- Sunshine Pride House ($20,000 funding a safe haven for homeless LGBTQ+ Youth) 
- SunServe ($20,000 funding health & wellbeing services for LGBTQ+ youth)

Co-founder Scott Schramm is not just a passionate boater, he’s a passionate supporter of the community. Once it became clear FLoatarama was a popular event, he and his fellow FLoaters decided to use it to raise money for LGBTQ youth causes.

This year’s parade was hosted by FayWhat?! and Sam Lantz, a finalist on Netflix’s reality competition show, “Squid Game The Challenge.”