AIDS Walk observes anniversary

About 13,000 Atlantans and others will converge on Piedmont Park on Sunday for the 20th anniversary of the AIDS Walk/Run, the largest and most visible fund-raising event for AIDS prevention and treatment in the Southeast.

For Craig Washington, prevention programs manager for AID Atlanta, the day will have a simple but powerful meaning.

"I’m going to be waking up thankful that I'm here, after living 25 years with this," he said.

Washington contracted HIV in 1985, though he denied it to himself at the time, and delayed being tested.

"It was a very different era," he said recently. "There was a lot of fear and not a lot of evidence for hope."

Today improved detection and treatment mean a more positive future for those who are HIV positive. Something else has also changed, said Washington, as evidenced by the accepting atmosphere of the AIDS Walk. The gathering draws people from every neighborhood, gay and straight, male and female, adults and children.

"When you come to an AIDS walk now, it looks like a true community, not just one dominant group," said Washington. "It represents the diversity of the epidemic and the diversity of the city."

The event will feature music, food, a 5-kilometer run, speakers and several "blocks" of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which has grown to a total of more than 47,000 handmade panels created in memory of nearly 91,000 individuals lost to HIV/AIDS.

Last year the event raised $850,000. That money helped AID Atlanta and nine other agencies provide treatment, education, meals, hospice care, mental health services, child care, substance abuse counseling, pastoral care and clinical research to thousands of Atlantans.

"I will be speaking at some point during the day's activities, reminding [people] how powerful the single act of showing up is," said Washington, "and how our children and others people’s children are watching, whether or not we know it, how we respond to the call, to the cause of the day. We have to model for them what it means to walk courageously, to speak out, to care about one another, to support each other, to walk together toward a cure, toward a vaccine, toward effective prevention."

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What: The AIDS Walk/Run