Miami Herald - November 15, 2002
Georgia Tasker, gtasker@herald.com

They're caring for 2,500 orchids, to be sold in May at Dante Fascell Park in South Miami to benefit South Florida children with AIDS.

Lamazares is president of OrchidMania South Florida, which began locally in 1997 and was modeled after a chapter in San Francisco, begun in 1989. The South Florida chapter raises money to help children in the pediatric AIDS program at the University of Miami and Operation Cradle, the university volunteer group that helps the children.

Since holding its first sale in 1999, the South Florida group has raised $36,500 for those programs. Since 1989, San Francisco and Miami have earned more than $400,000 for AIDS programs in Thailand, Vietnam, Central and South America. Membership is international, and includes some members in Thailand and Germany.

PICKING UP TABS

Ana Garcia, coordinator of psychosocial services for the University of Miami's Pediatric AIDs program, says the OrchidMania money provides food for children in support groups and taxi fares or other transportation needs.

When the program's oldest survivor lacked money to pay off her tuition in order to become a licensed medical technician, OrchidMania picked up the tab. And when a boy bound to the hospital wanted to see a Miami Heat game, Lamazares arranged for a limo to take the boy, his doctor and nurses to meet the team.

"Alex is very hands-on," Garcia said. "We moved to the Batchelor Children's Research Institute and Alex sat with the kids, playing with them" while the move was completed.

"It's more than OrchidMania," she said. "It's the man. I don't know what I'd do without him."

At Christmas, OrchidMania in South Florida collects toys for children who have AIDS. They do it by offering a free orchid seedling for a toy taken to Soroa Orchids, 25750 SW 177th Ave., (Krome Avenue) in Homestead.

Soroa owner, Jose Exposito, is on the board of trustees for the San Francisco group; he asked Lamazares to join the Miami chapter as it was getting started. Hobby and commercial orchid growers donate plants to OrchidMania -- sometimes by ones and twos, sometimes, as is the case with Soroa, by the truckload.

As a commercial orchid grower, Exposito was asked to serve on the board.

"With all the AIDS here and the gay community, I thought a lot of people would like to be involved, so I brought up the idea to a group of people working with the AIDS coalition," Exposito said.

Initially, the effort produced more social meetings than work sessions.

"Alex turned it around," Exposito said.

Within a year, Lamazares became president and held the first sale in May 1998, netting $2,500.

Not bad for Lamazares, 46, who didn't know the first thing about orchids when he agreed to take on the role he has shouldered for almost five years.

"OrchidMania changed my life in that I was able to take an active role in doing something about AIDS. It was a way for me to give back for the blessing of not being HIV positive," said Lamazares, sales and marketing director for the Crest Hotels in Miami Beach.

It hasn't always been easy for Lamazares.

He has struggled through migraines for years and last year suffered from rectal prolapse, which put him in the hospital a week after the 2001 sale. He was sidelined from work for a year, but still directed the 2002 sale, held in May. (The 2003 dates are May 24-25.)

WORK DAYS

During a year when he lost 40 pounds and endured six colonoscopies, Lamazares still tried to attend the Sunday volunteer work days. If he couldn't, he kept track of what chores had to be done, often by cell phone to his partner Rolando Lastra, vice president of the OrchidMania group.

"I was conducting the orchestra via satellite," he said. "I felt that I had to work despite my physical condition, because their [the children's] needs didn't diminish," Lamazares said. "As bad as I was feeling and as handicapping as the illness was, I felt it was something of a temporary nature and theirs were long-term and terminal."

WORK ON SUNDAY

When able to drive last year, Lamazares would work on Sunday until he needed a Demerol. Then, he'd take one and head home, talking to Lastra on his phone until he reached the front door, which took 20 to 30 minutes. At that point, the pill would take effect, and he could turn off the cell phone and sleep.

"My illness made me realize we're not invincible. There are things we can't control, but you can't let that rule your life. You have to move forward, even if it's at a slower pace."

Born in Cuba, Lamazares came to Miami when he was 3 or 4 and lived with his parents, sister and two brothers first with relatives, then on Northwest 11th Avenue. Subsequently, the family moved to Cutler Ridge.

"My mother was like the neighborhood collection box for Camillus House," he said. "She cooked for church fairs. She made soup to raise money to build the church" of St. Joaquin.

'My father would say, 'We're going to be the Salvation Army here.' But it didn't matter to her. She'd say to people, 'If you don't want it, bring it to me and I'll see that someone gets it.' My father would drive her. She was my mentor in that sense."

Lamazares went back to work at the Crest in August. He takes acupuncture to control pain and muscle spasms.

FILLING UP

The OrchidMania greenhouse now is about three-quarters full for the next sale. Orchids hang from pipes, sit in pots and baskets, many awaiting repotting or cleaning or just some TLC.

"In my opinion, I think doing something provides a greater satisfaction with hands-on work, rather than writing a check," he says. "You can't accomplish as much as you can with a big check, but there's a greater degree of satisfaction. You make it happen.

Even if I had the money to write a check, I don't know that I'd stop doing the physical work."

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