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WORLD AIDS DAY: December 1, 2009

21 st Annual WORLD AIDS DAY

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Bellingham Observance to include

Candlelight Vigil, Procession and Service

Bellingham – Begun by the World Health Organization in 1988, World AIDS Day has been observed every December 1 st since, serving to ignite not only our energy and our passion to the global consequences of the AIDS epidemic, but acting as a living, yearly tribute to the 25 million lives lost. “But despite 21 years of World AIDS Days,” says Scott Bertani, Assistant Director for Evergreen AIDS Foundation, “ the shroud of AIDS-related stigma still exists, crisscrossing our state in wide swaths from Maple Falls and Ferndale, on up from Lynden and down to Bellingham like ridges of grass, cut and thrown together by a sickle of shame.”

“While death from HIV/AIDS is no longer the inevitable, swift and savage result that it once was,” he goes on to say,  “on this day—in 2009—this virus, unfortunately, looks very similar to how it did before the advent of hope and medicine: incurably fatal, and for many debilitating. With incapacitating side-effects that range in everything from anemia to gastrointestinal problems; extreme fatigue to increased rates of heart and liver disease, cancer and diabetes, it's more often than not, the most psychologically devastating thing of all—lipoatrophy (or wasting syndrome)—that becomes the scarlet letter for some 56,300 newly infected U.S. citizens per year.” And for those infected (and affected), life is often re-birthed each day rather than being fully lived, and depression can become a way of life.

In Washington State, in fact, approximately 10,500 people are now living with HIV or AIDS (PLWHA), including 250 locally. Nearly 7,000 have died since 1982 alone. And as the years march on, the line between optimism and reality can wear thin for many human service agencies that both care for PLWHA and help prevent HIV transmission.

To that note, December 1 st is the world community's call to action—not just to remember those lost, but to support those now living forward with this disease by making a public statement against stigma, discrimination, intolerance and the need for routine HIV screening. Thanks to improved treatment options and medical care, there really is a way forward. So, to that end, a coalition of local support agencies—Evergreen AIDS Foundation along with Sean Humphrey House, Slum Doctor Programme, Interfaith Community Health Clinic, Western Washington University and Mount Baker Planned Parenthood—is asking that you take part in memorial activities to commemorate this day; because, in reality, none of us are truly immune from the impact of HIV/AIDS. 

BELLINGHAM WORLD AIDS DAY EVENTS :

STREET ACTION: 10:00am-4:00pm at the four corners of Railroad & Holly.

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL: 5:15pm-5:45pm on the corners of Railroad & Holly.

MARCH: 5:45pm-6:15pm to the Whatcom Museum Rotunda Room, 121 Prospect Street with bagpipe procession led by local musician, Peter Rolstad.

SERVICE: 6:15pm-7:45pm at the Whatcom Museum Rotunda Room, 121 Prospect Street. Led by Reverend Doug Wadkins of the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship. Featuring speakers and songs by the Squalicum High School Choir, directed by Andy Marshall; an A Capella by Deanna Davis; and Piano soloist by Scot Ranney.