Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bay Area Reporter - April 27, 2001
David Fraser
The annual awards are being presented by the San Francisco AIDS Candlelight Vigil.
Doors open at 6 p.m.; the program starts at 7 and includes the awards ceremony, refreshments, and music.
Awardees this year are:
o Syringe exchange activist Chris Catchpool, director of Casa Segura, the Oakland needle exchange site that recently was the target of an arson attack.
o Jeff Sheehy, former Milk Club president and longtime AIDS activist. Sheehy is being recognized for his work on the successful "United Against United" airline boycott, as well as San Francisco's equal benefits and nonprofit sunshine ordinances.
Sheehy now leads the Milk Club's PWA caucus and is on the board of the Saint James Infirmary, a sex-workers' clinic held weekly at the City Health Clinic.
o HIV-positive transgender activist Felicia Elizondo, a longtime volunteer at AIDS service organizations including the ARIS Project in San Jose, Project Open Hand, Proyecto Contra Sida, and Pets Are Wonderful Support. She was a spokesmodel in last year's HIVStopsWithMe.org campaign and is an activities coordinator at Shanti.
o HIV-positive psychologist and activist Michael Siever, the first community co-chair of the Treatment on Demand Planning Council and the founder and director of the Stonewall Project, a harm-reduction program for gay and bisexual men in San Francisco.
o HIV-positive activist Nilda Rodriguez, the former co-chair of the San Francisco Health Services Planning Council and current volunteer manager and community liaison at WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Disease) in Oakland.
o Judy Leahy, outreach and education manager at Project Inform, for her work to help underserved San Francisco AIDS community organizations and in organizing AIDS treatment community forums.
o SMMILE (South of Market Merchants' and Individuals' Lifestyles Events), the all-volunteer nonprofit leather organization that puts on the Dore Alley and Folsom Street fairs, thereby donating millions of dollars to AIDS and community organizations throughout the Bay Area.
The annual AIDS Candlelight March has become the world's largest grassroots AIDS event. This year it will be held on Sunday, May 20, kicking off from Castro and Market streets at 8 p.m.
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