POUGHKEEPSIE – The Walkway Over the Hudson was the scene of this year’s 23rd Annual AIDS Walk organized by Hudson Valley Community Services. Every year, community organizations and local supporters use the walk to raise money for those who are living with AIDS or may be prone to new infection. This year’s AIDS Walk raised over $25,000 in donations.
Several groups participated in the Saturday event
According to the last report, which was conducted in 2012, there are approximately 7,000 people in the Hudson Valley living with HIV AIDS. Jay Dewey, director of public relations and resource enhancement for Hudson Valley Community Services, said his agency serves about 1,200 of them every year and the money raised at the AIDS Walk events helps finance crucial services for those that suffer with the disease.
“The fund-raising that we do here helps to sort of fill in some gaps in some funding,” said Dewey. “So, it’ll help things like when a transportation program runs short, getting a ride to the doctor’s office; prevention programs often need money to provide incentives to get people in for HIV testing, food pantries: they often need some help because those rely purely on donated money and donated food. So, we use things like this to sort of help all those different kinds of programs whenever they have a budget shortfall.”
Hudson Valley Community Services provided buses for free AIDS tests and also provided designated staff for those who needed a person to confide in about their disease.
Kay Flaminio, executive director of the community-based organization
Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center, said the event is an important tool for spreading
awareness about AIDS that the community needs.
“I think it’s an amazing event,” said Flaminio. “I think that it’s just a very empowering, important event and it’s important for everyone to support it, especially because there’s less and less public understanding of AIDS as we make so much forward progress.”
Dewey said that the walk is a necessity for people suffering with AIDS in the community to get the funding they need for their services but their organization will know when the AIDS situation is no longer an issue when there is no more need for the walk.
