AIDS Walk Raises Record $1.8 Million

In the 80-degree heat, about 12,000 people, many of them marching for friends and relatives who had died of AIDS, raised a record $1.8 million Sunday in the fifth annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles.

The funds will go to the food bank, buddy system, dental clinic, shelter, counseling, hot line and other programs of AIDS Project Los Angeles, the largest and oldest AIDS service organization in Southern California. The agency has about 2,000 clients, including two-thirds of the people in the county diagnosed with AIDS.

Organizers said the 6.2-mile walk through Hollywood was the largest fund-raiser for AIDS services in the state, both in the amount of money and the number of participants.

Unlike last year, when much of the $1.5 million from the walkathon went to repaying a $1-million debt, this year the budget is balanced, and all the walk money will go directly to client services, Chief Executive Officer Stephen Bennett said.

Actor Willem Dafoe said he agreed to be the walk’s master of ceremonies because “AIDS affects all of us . . . (and) I had it directly affect some people I know.”

“It’s logical, I didn’t have to think two seconds when they asked me.” he said.

For many of the participants, the walk was a personal testimonial. Annie and Berne Rolston of Encino said their son, a co-owner of a New York art gallery, was recently diagnosed with the fatal disease.

“I don’t mind saying my son has AIDS because it is an effective way to increase public awareness,” Annie Rolston, 63, said. “Maybe people will say, ‘Her son has it, possibly my son has it or could get it.’ ”

AIDS “is the black plague of the 20th Century,” Berne Rolston said, adding that the government has not done enough.

As a Christian, Lisa Lane, 26, said she believes that the best prevention against AIDS is celibacy, and she objected to a booth at the walk’s start that was “handing out condoms like stocking stuffers.”

But she came from Canoga Park to march, she said, because “people are dying.”