The San Diego City Council recently proclaimed Dec. 12, 2009 Bob Stanley Day, in honor of Stanley’s dedication to helping the community as executive director of Auntie Helen’s. Auntie Helen’s Thrift Shop manager Michael Dudley presented the award to Stanley at its North Park store on the day of the proclamation.

“It feels wonderful; it’s such an honor,” Stanley said. “A lot of the credit for my success depends on the volunteers. We have a lot of great volunteers at Auntie Helen’s.”

Auntie Helen’s has served thousands of San Diegans by providing laundry services for people too sick to do their own laundry. With more than 1,500 loads of laundry washed and dried every month, the organization thrives on its more than 80 volunteers. In spite of the heavy workload, Auntie Helen’s is able to return laundry to clients within 24 hours.

“I’m always here,” volunteer Brian Garner said, who is HIV-positive and finds his work with the organization to be rewarding.

“Everyday is such a good experience for me,” Garner said, who as a nurse witnesses the struggles people have in their day-to-day life.

“Laundry is not something a lot of people think about,” Garner said. “Meeting the most basic necessities and requirements can really be a challenge for some people.”

Every month the organization serves 400 clients in addition to more than 900 people with emergency, clothing and medical equipment needs.

Gary Cheatham founded the organization in 1987 and named the organization after his great aunt, Helen. Dudley was a friend of Cheatham’s and gave insight into the organization’s inception.

“So many HIV organizations started between the fall of ’87 and spring of ’88,” Dudley said. “It all started at Auntie’s in a very innocent way.”

Cheatham had friends who were near death due to complications from AIDS. When he visited them, Cheatham cleaned their apartments and started taking their laundry home with him to clean.

Cheatham washed, dried, fluffed, folded and bagged his friend’s laundry and delivered it back to them. Word of Cheatham’s work spread in the community and his two to three loads of laundry quickly grew.

“By then he was getting some press exposure and some volunteers to help with the laundry,” Dudley said. “We were lucky to have the supporters we had.”

The store manager commended former Mayor Maureen O’ Connor, Ben Dillingham, Joan Kroc and Christine Kehoe for their assistance to the organization.

At the end of 1989, the laundry loads increased to 100 daily. New washers and dryers were donated to Cheatham but the workload became too much for his garage. Cheatham decided to rent a commercial location for his organization in order to have more work space. Along with the move, Cheatham decided to open the Auntie Helen’s Thrift Store to help with the costs of maintaining the organization.

Dudley beamed about Cheatham’s kindness and good nature.

“Our founder was a wonderful man to work with,” Dudley said. “He was one of the kindest and always knew what a client’s needs were even before they asked us.”

As the ’90s progressed, there were few signs the AIDS crisis would get better.

“Most of the staff and volunteers were either infected or affected by HIV,” Dudley said, noting the same is true of their current volunteers.

“In so many ways we were traveling down the road of life blindfolded. From 1988 to 1995, I found myself with other colleagues going to more than five memorial services each week,” he added.

With the introduction of then new antiretroviral drugs in the mid-’90s, things began to look up for the AIDS community, but Auntie Helen’s struggled.

Cheatham passed away in 1995 but not before ensuring that Dudley took care of the organization’s future.

“He made me promise that I would stay connected with Auntie Helen’s as long as I could,” Dudley said, adding that he knew he was HIV-positive when he made the promise.

“I thought it wasn’t a long commitment since I knew I would be dead by 1998 at the latest,” Dudley said. “Who knew?”

After Cheatham’s death, the organization endured and flourished with the help of Stanley at the helm.

“We just realized that Gary put everything on the line he had including his home, his job, and he was living on the floor of Auntie Helen’s,” Stanley said. “We were just getting the thrift shop in order when he passed away. We couldn’t let that go down the drain. We had to keep it going and we thrived.”

The organization was shocked to learn two years ago that it no longer qualified for Ryan White funding. The organization continues to not qualify for funds and recently learned it was denied again this year.

Auntie Helen’s occasionally provides an emergency clothing and bedding distribution source for people diagnosed with AIDS, donates clothing and bedding to people diagnosed with AIDS and their families in Mexico and provides medical equipment including, wheelchairs, shower chairs, canes, walkers, toilet chairs and IV poles.

Auntie Helen’s is located at 4028 30 St. in Normal Heights. Donation drop offs can be done Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.auntiehelens.org or call 619-584-8438.