Between 10,000 and 12,000 walkers and runners are expected to descend upon Balboa Park Oct. 5, for AIDS Walk San Diego 2003. Their fun and efforts will help to support roughly 30 agencies on both sides of the border that provide services to children, adolescents, women, men and families affected by HIV/AIDS.

AIDS Walk is more than merely a fund- and awareness-raising activity for HIV/AIDS-related service agencies. AIDS Walk combines a 5K walk and 10K run with entertainment ranging from live broadcasts from local radio stations My 94.1 FM and Magic 92.5 FM beginning the walk to a festival following the walk with live music from Ruby and the Red Hots and Theo and the Zydeco Patrol, food and merchandise booths, and an area with games and entertainment for children. In addition, there will be booths representing many of the agencies that benefit from the AIDS Walk, the opportunity for free HIV screening from the County of San Diego’s Mobile Outreach Unit following the walk and a display of AIDS Memorial Quilt panels.

Even though there is much more to AIDS Walk than just the walk, the most important aspect of the event is its role as a fundraiser.

As Delores Jacobs, PhD, executive director of the Center, says, “AIDS Walk is important because it is the largest single-day fundraiser for HIV/AIDS in San Diego County.” According to Jacobs, AIDS Walk 2002 raised about $450,000 for HIV/AIDS services in San Diego. This is money that is sorely needed to provide necessary and critical services to people with HIV and AIDS, particularly as other avenues of funding have begun to disappear or plateau. In part, because of deficits throughout the nation and particularly at the California level with the state budget crisis, there are fewer governmental funds available for those living with HIV/AIDS.

Jacobs notes that in San Diego County alone there has been a loss of about $500,000 in funding from the state. “And somehow that money has to be made up,” she adds. “Corporate and individual contributions have plateaued because there is a limited amount of corporate money but a great number of needs — like substance abuse, breast cancer, child abuse and many others.” In this climate, there is even more need than in past years for the extra money that AIDS Walk can bring in.

As some funding sources have dried up and others have leveled off, expenses have been increasing. More than two decades after the HIV/AIDS epidemic began, because the medical options and survival rates have increased, the costs associating with continued care and services for those with HIV/AIDS have also steadily increased. People live much longer, but “costs increase; it’s not getting cheaper to feed people,” says Jacobs. That’s why the funds from AIDS Walk are needed more now than ever.

Unfortunately, even the funds raised from AIDS Walk have been decreasing over the past years, with the last AIDS Walk bringing in around $80,000 less than the one before, according to Jacobs, even as the number of walkers and runners has remained steady.

This trend is also of concern to Megan Blanek, AIDS Walk Project Manager. She emphasizes how great it is that people show up to demonstrate their concern and because they have been touched by HIV/AIDS. At the same time, she thinks that some people don’t understand how even a small donation can make a splash when it’s multiplied by 10,000 people. “A lot of people walk to show their support, but don’t realize even a dollar makes a difference,” she says.

“I think twenty years into the epidemic is an interesting place to be,” says Jacobs. “Corporate and individual contributions have plateaued because there is a limited amount of corporate money but a great number of needs — like substance abuse, breast cancer, child abuse and many others.”

And this means that there is more need for funding. Unfortunately, even some of the governmental programs that haven’t been cut are not designed for a world in which HIV/AIDS is survivable. For instance, for the last ten years the Ryan White Care Act has made funds available for those living with HIV/AIDS, but, as Jacobs points out, “A lot of care has been made available, but the funds are emergency medical funds.” They were designed to help people in the last years or months of their lives. Since the picture for those with HIV/AIDS has become rosier, the funding picture has become worse.

“The good news is that people are living much longer. We have the medicines; people aren’t necessarily dying anymore, but the funding situation is insidiously worsening,” says Jacobs.

Along with the funding crisis there is a related crisis of interest in the epidemic. After twenty years of people in and outside of our community contracting HIV/AIDS, suffering and in many cases dying, there is a combined sense of weariness and complacency in the community.

“We’re tired. A lot of people have watched a lot of people get sick and a lot of their friends die,” says Jacobs. “And it’s not something that anybody likes to talk about.” She points out that HIV/AIDS isn’t something that we normally talk about at parties or at bars or coffeehouses or any of the other places where members of our communities meet and talk.

And so, as we talk less about the epidemic than we once did, it bears unfortunate results in terms of the amount of money and time we are willing to commit as well as in terms of new infections. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the rate of HIV infections just among gay men increased 7.1 percent from 2001 to 2002, and a total of 17.7 percent from the infection rate’s low-point in 1999. This has been accompanied by a reported increase in unsafe and less safe sexual practices.

There isn’t good data about changes in HIV infection rates at the county level, but according to Jacobs around one person every day is diagnosed with full-blown AIDS, and one person dies every three days from AIDS-related illnesses in San Diego County. The new diagnoses join the roughly 5500 people already living with AIDS in the county, making San Diego third in number of AIDS cases in California, according to the county health department. In addition, there are between 12,000 and 15,000 people with HIV in the county. So the epidemic is still very much with us in San Diego County and on the rise again.

AIDS Walk fights the complacency and weariness by providing at least one day and lots of events leading up to and following the walk when HIV/AIDS is talked about and focused on. It isn’t just a fundraiser or an event; it’s also an opportunity for awareness raising and education, and for reminding the community of all of those among us who are touched by HIV/AIDS. As Jacobs says, “At least one day a year and at least for a week leading up to it, we talk about the disease. And, that’s important for people living with the disease, who never hear it talked about.”

And, with the participation of so many groups in the walk and the post-walk festival, AIDS Walk also provides a forum where walkers and runners can interact with the beneficiaries of their fundraising and learn more about what services are available for those affected by HIV/AIDS. “Most of the agencies that receive funds from AIDS Walk are at the walk, either walking as a team or with a booth, so walkers can see where their donations are going,” according to Blanek.

Besides forcing the community to think and learn more about HIV/AIDS, the walk allows participants to become and feel involved in a community-wide effort. And, as Blanek makes clear, the community is much broader than just the gay, lesbian and bisexual community. “The walkers are involved for many different personal reasons,” she says. “They are so diverse — students, parents, grandparents, everybody.” And, while the same people come back year after year she also notices how every year there are new people who haven’t walked before.

For many of the walkers, it’s not just something that they do, it’s something that they plan to do for the entire year. “For a lot of people, it’s like an appointment; they’re going to do it every year,” says Blanek. And for some, the AIDS Walk has had some great outcomes. Blanek recounts the story of one walker who has participated in every walk since 1989. He walked in memory of his lover, and a few years ago he met his current partner at AIDS Walk. “AIDS Walk was their first date.”

Even though AIDS Walk has been raising funds and awareness for fourteen years, it has also seen some changes. This year’s walk is the second to be produced with The Center’s involvement and the first to be wholly under its management since it was established as a separate entity.

This has brought some changes in the focus of the event as well as the way it is publicized, according to Blanek. Among the most important changes is an important financial one. “The walk has changed drastically in my three years of involvement,” says Blanek. “Specifically, expenses have gone down drastically.” This change reflects one of the most important goals that The Center’s Jacobs outlined when The Center first became involved with AIDS Walk again last year.

As expenses have gone down, there has also been a renewed focus on AIDS Walk as a fundraising event. “The walk used to be more focused on the event, and there’s been a shift to more fundraising and shifting money into the community where it’s needed,” says Blanek. Because of the dearth of funding right now, this change is an important one.

Besides increasing the fundraising power of the walk, there has been a concentrated effort to increase the walk’s presence and visibility in the wider community, to tap even more successfully into the diverse population that already walks, and to take its message to the entire county. Blanek says, “I think that AIDS Walk is much more widespread geographically in its publicity. We haven’t limited ourselves to Hillcrest; we’ve gone throughout San Diego County.”

Pre- AIDS Walk ceremonies begin at 7:00 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 5, in Balboa Park at the corner of Sixth and Olive, with introductory remarks by representatives of AIDS Walk and San Diego City officials. At 7:45 a.m., there will be an aerobic warm up to get the walkers and runners ready to start. The 10K run begins at 8:00 a.m. with the 5K walk beginning at 8:05 a.m. Following the walk, there is a post-walk festival from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon in Balboa Park. The festival will include live entertainment and music, vendor and food booths, representatives of some of the roughly 30 recipient agencies of funds from AIDS/WALK, displays of panels from the AIDS Quilt and a “Path of Remembrance” honoring the memories of loved ones lost to AIDS, as well as free HIV screening. In addition, there will be an area for children.

Blanek and Jacobs both encourage pre-registration for AIDS Walk. This can be done online or in person on Thursday and Friday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at The Center. Visit this story at www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to the web site. You can also register at Balboa Park, on Sixth Ave. between Nutmeg and Quince, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Even if you don’t pre-register — and according to Blanek the number of pre-registered walkers is usually well under 10 percent of the participants — you can register on Sunday, the day of the walk, beginning at 6:00 a.m. and continuing throughout the day, at the Chase Home Finance Registration Tent at the corner of Sixth and Olive.

Whether you are interested in joining one of the estimated 12,000 walkers, the 500 runners or the 600 to 1000 volunteers who make AIDS Walk possible, whether you decide to walk or run as an individual or as a member of a team, participating in the walk is a way to make a difference through fundraising, awareness raising and simply support for all those in our community and throughout the world who are being touched by the continuing HIV/AIDS epidemic. In Jacobs words, it’s a way to be “part of something greater” than just one individual fighting the virus. And, as Blanek says, “If there’s one thing I would like people to know about AIDS Walk, it is that every little bit makes a difference when there are so many people participating.”