September 29, 1999

250 participate in AIDS Walk Michigan along West Bay

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       The battle with HIV/AIDS is not over yet.
      As a testimonial to that, more than 250 people turned out Sunday afternoon to participated in the second annual AIDS Walk Michigan. Completing a three-mile course along West Bay that started and ended at the Traverse City Senior Center, walkers and organizers demonstrated that they will not let the this issue fall from the public eye.
      "Being here is just the right thing to do," said Lisa Bandlow, manager of the Disney Store in the Grand Traverse Mall, which fielded a team of 20 people at this year's walk. "We wanted to give back to the community. Disney company rewards volunteer work but we just do it because we're good-natured folks."
      AIDS Walk Michigan occurred simultaneously in 12 cities around the state, making it the largest, multi-site fund-raiser of this kind in the nation. Locally, walkers represented both Northern Michigan Wellness in Traverse City and HIV/AIDS Network and Direct Services in Petoskey and together they raised approximately $25,000. This money will stay locally to help people with AIDS living in northern Michigan and to fund community outreach and education programs.
      "We can't help people living with AIDS or their caregivers or loved ones without funds," said Brooke Borgeson-Gray with the HIV/AIDS Wellness Networks and a co-chair of the walk. "The walk is also an opportunity to raise awareness about AIDS and to keep AIDS in people's faces. We are far from a cure and not even close to a vaccine."
      Borgeson-Gray noted that getting people to understand that AIDS is still a threat can be difficult. With recent medical advances improving prognosis for people with aids and HIV-positive status, workers and volunteers have been running into more apathy and complacency when trying to spread the message about the dangers of AIDS.
      Studies are showing that younger people are not listening to AIDS prevention messages and the incidence of AIDS in that population group is on the rise. Nationwide, AIDS is also spreading among women and women of color, breaking out of the traditional gay population associated with AIDS.
      "Young people now think that there is a pill that they can take to fix AIDS," said Jim Carruthers, executive director of HIV/AIDS Wellness Networks. "That's not true. And with studies showing that 68 percent of our teens are sexually active before they graduate from high school, we need to get the message about AIDS to those teens, even if parents don't want to believe it is happening."
      Some young people, however, are very aware of the message. Nine students from the Interlochen Academy for the Arts walked to show their support for people with AIDS and AIDS education efforts. Bringing homemade posters and their boundless enthusiasm, these students are not complacent about AIDS.
      "Interlochen is about the real world and AIDS is as real as it gets," said Victoria Bass a junior studying cello at the academy. "This is a very important cause."
      One of the honorary co-chairs of the event struck a personal note on the toll AIDS takes on families and loved ones of people with AIDS. Mayor pro-tem Margaret Dodd recalled how seven years ago one of her close friends died of AIDS after years of hoping for a miracle.
      "I shared his hope that a cure would be found in time, unfortunately it wasn't," Dodd said. "I still mourn for him. It's going to take all of us together to fight AIDS."