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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.
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