Thursday, August 12, 2010

Volunteers Raise Funds and Enthusiasm for AIDS Walk

BCCS is off to a running start in raising money for this year’s AIDS Walk, thanks to some wonderful volunteers who are serving as team captains! They have set up a table at the Lancaster Center on Tuesdays and Fridays, promoting the activity, giving away flyers, and asking for donations.

Already, we have raised a total of $200! Our goal is at least $500, and you can help us reach it! Visit our fundraising page, contact Edna Maldonado or Christine Czajkowski at 656-2348, or stop by the display table.

“I’m really excited about the whole thing,” says team captain Betsy, who is HIV positive and a recovered drug user. “I came here through the hospital, and when I got here, I got involved. If you are infected with the virus, you can keep on living and still help other people. Brandywine has helped me do that, and that’s why I’ll do anything for this program.”

Volunteers Kaitlyn and Gloria were recruited by Betsy, seeing how passionate she was. “She came in and talked to our IOP group, asking us to either sign up to be on the team or to donate,” says Kaitlyn, who has family and friends with HIV/AIDS. “Watching them go through what they have to go through and not being able to do anything, sucks! So why not help the people that you can, so they don’t have to be alone. If you donate the money, it goes to helping them with their medicine, food, whatever they need, so they’re not by themselves.”

Betsy recognizes how different things are today than a few years ago. “I’m very healthy and outgoing and spontaneous! There’s a lot of new drug therapies today we didn’t have back then. Maybe I wouldn’t be sitting here right now, maybe somebody would have been walking for me today. So I’ve got to give back! If I support everything I can about this disease, maybe God will bless me, and I can bless somebody else, because a lot of people have come around when they listen to my story.”

The 24th Annual AIDS Walk Delaware will be held Sunday, September 26, 2010 at Rockford Park in New Castle County, Sunday, October 3, 2010 at Silver Lake Rec. Area in Kent County, and Sunday October 3, 2010 at Grove Park in Sussex County.

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