Bay Area Reporter - July 6, 2006
Rob Akers

And it is not too late to sign up if you are a procrastinator.

Sign-ups for those who show up the day of the walk will begin at 9 a.m. at a booth in Sharon Meadow. Following the opening ceremony at 9:45, seasoned, professional walkers as well as rookies will begin the 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) journey through the park at 10:30. A post-walk concert is set for 12:30 in the meadow.

There is no registration fee and no minimum donation requirement to participate in AIDS Walk.

Money raised by participants in the walk will benefit the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and 43 other HIV/AIDS organizations serving six Bay Area counties.

San Francisco AIDS Foundation Executive Director Mark Cloutier said he hoped as many people as possible could join him for this year's bittersweet celebration.

"This year's walk marks 20 years of action, activism, and progress in the Bay Area's fight against AIDS," said Cloutier, who added that the 25th anniversary of the first diagnosed AIDS cases makes this year's walk all that more important.

"This milestone is an important time to reflect on where we have come from and what is needed to move forward," he said.

Some of those who will be participating in this year's walk shared with the Bay Area Reporter their reasons to take part in the yearly benefit.

"Being a walker signifies the memories of lost ones over the last 25 years," said Roman Libov, a first-year walker. Libov is the team leader for a group of participants representing the LGBT Community Center. He also is peer support coordinator for the center's Newcomers' Assistance Program.

For Steven Sams, a 20-year walker, the reality of the disease and his reasons for walking has hit home. "I started walking as a memorial for all my brothers I'd recently lost in 1987," he said. "I continued on, building a team at what was then Pacific Bell [now AT&T] as a living tribute to their memories and as a way of telling the story of the epidemic to co-workers. Today I walk almost out of compulsion."

Nancy Turner, another walker who has participated every year since the first walk in 1987, said she is both proud and sad. "I'm sad that after 25 years since the first reported AIDS case and 20 years since the first walk, there is still no vaccine, still no cure," said Turner, who walks with the Kaiser Permanente team. "I'm proud that I have stayed committed, and that my husband, John Hendry, has walked with me since 1995. We walk for those that can't."

For Maria Moscardini, a 15-plus year participant, the walk takes on a more celebratory nature. "I walk because it's about unity, compassion, and community, and because I can," she said.

The first San Francisco AIDS Walk took place in 1987. At that walk, more than 6,000 participants raised $667,000 for eight benefiting organizations.

The AIDS Walk is produced by Craig Miller and MZA Events. A production fee of $170,000 was paid by SFAF to MZA Events, up from $150,000 paid last year. The event has raised $55 million since it started.

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