Since 1982, the Orlando Sentinel has asked the community to help recognize people who have made a significant difference in local life with the Central Floridian of the Year Award. Today, we are announcing the first finalists. Winners will be announced on April 11th.
Perhaps the worst part of the story was that something bright and beautiful was hidden in darkness and removed.
The state’s removal of the rainbow crosswalk outside the former Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, one of the state’s most important sites for the LGBTQ community, late on August 21 felt like another act of violence in a location notorious for the LGBTQ community.
While the city was abuzz with anger, Se7enbites owner Trina Gregory took quick steps to restore beauty. Her actions made her a finalist for the Orlando Sentinel’s 2026 Central Floridian of the Year Award.
People had emotion and energy. Politicians kept talking about “public property”. That gave Gregory an idea, which began with building a makeshift crosswalk on her private property.
“But then I thought, ‘Why am I thinking so little?!’ Her big idea materialized into one of the city’s largest, most rapid, citizen-run art projects.
“We are called the Beautiful City for nothing. We are a city full of art and color,” Gregory told the Sentinel after learning he had been selected as a finalist. “I didn’t want to belittle anyone’s feelings about the loss (of the crosswalk), I didn’t want to belittle people’s feelings…but everyone seemed so (incredibly) angry.
“But no one had any control over it at that point.”
She did the only thing she could control.
On September 15th, Gregory welcomed the Orlando community to the parking lot of his Milk District restaurant, Parking Space for Pride – Rainbow Connection. There, artists painted 49 parking spaces, a number symbolizing the victims of the 2016 Pulse shooting, but not as a memorial, she said.
“It was and is definitely a memory of what happened, but I was thinking about more than that. I was thinking about joy, about bringing joy back,” Gregory says.
Se7enbites owner says Pride parking space is ‘really about community’
And for her nominators, that was just the tip of the iceberg in considering Gregory for the 2026 Central Floridian of the Year.
“Trina responded to[the crosswalk removal]not with silence, but with creativity…” he wrote. Evan Coutts, Gregory’s girlfriend at the time of the nomination (the two got engaged just this past weekend); “An initiative that has garnered national attention to transform private parking spaces into public statements of belonging…”
“We’re seeing so much hate, so much protest, so much rhetoric about fighting back, but there’s another way to fight back,” Gregory told the Orlando Sentinel at the time.
In the roughly six months since opening Parking for Pride, Gregory has received letters, postcards, emails and messages from all over the world. It also includes photos of the grounds taken when people visited the city and stopped for a meal. Others are just thank you notes from people who read the story or saw the art. We are receiving more work from the artists and hope that they will be included in the painting of the next lot.
She says the attention came as a shock.
“How did someone in England find out about this? Or in Ireland? Or in Seattle? I’m so grateful for this letter, to hear that it touched people so much that they wanted to share it…to know that it’s become this movement of joy in a world full of hate.”
Gregory has long been known for his commitment to the community through his work with the Orlando Youth Alliance, his service on the Valencia College Culinary Advisory Board, and his work on the Visit Orlando Committee.
There are many other examples, but the catalyst for this nod was the color she brought back to groups that felt disenfranchised.
Inside Se7enbites is a community bulletin board, a space where local businesses have posted cards and event announcements for years, as the Milk District and many Orlando neighborhoods tend to be places where entrepreneurs support each other. However, since the parking lot event, the area of business cards has decreased a little.
“We had to make sure we had room for all the letters and postcards so people could read them,” Gregory says.
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram @amydroo or the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, and for more foodie fun, join our Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
2026 Central Floridian of the Year
Today: Finalist No. 1 – Trina Gregory
Thursday: 2nd place finalist announced
March 29th (Sunday): 3rd place finalist announced
Thursday, April 2nd: 4th place finalist announced
Sunday, April 5th: 5th place finalist announced
April 12th (Sun): Winners announced
For more information about the Central Floridian of the Year program and past winners and nominees, visit OrlandoSentinel.com/CFOTY.
