Rileys Win AIDS Humanitarian Award : Honors: Supervisor and wife have been active and visible in campaigns to raise money for research and education.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and his wife, Emma Jane, received the Orange County Humanitarian Award on Saturday night for their support of AIDS research.

“We’re happy to see AIDS talked about and for something to be done,” Emma Jane Riley said, just before the couple accepted the award at a dinner and reception at the Disneyland Hotel.

About 400 people attended the dinner, sponsored by AIDS Walk Orange County. Proceeds are to be used for research and education about acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

The Rileys were chosen for the first-time award by a committee made up of the AIDS Walk board of directors and community representatives.

“They just emerged as the leaders,” said Elizabeth Dorn Parker, co-executive director of AIDS Walk. “They work as a team.

“We wanted recipients who lived, worked and did their community work in Orange County.”

Riley said he first became aware of the gravity of AIDS when he saw a baby stricken with the disease.

“I knew we had something very insidious here that isn’t limited to a particular kind of person,” he said.

Riley was one of just two supervisors to support a measure that would have barred discrimination against AIDS victims.

Riley said his support of AIDS causes “has raised a few eyebrows” but said some people do not understand what he is trying to accomplish. After he voted for the anti-discrimination law--which lost, 3 to 2, in June--Riley said that because Orange County is conservative, “it’s a little more difficult perhaps to (vote with) a more open . . . sense of responsibility.”

The Rileys have supported AIDS Walk Orange County, which raises money and awareness of AIDS, since the walk’s inception three years ago.

Emma Jane Riley said she hopes that the event will raise attention about the need for an AIDS cure.

In its three-year history, AIDS Walk has raised about $500,000.

Cathy Winthrop, assistant director of AIDS Walk, said raising money for AIDS in a county with such a strong conservative bent has sometimes proven difficult.

“It was a little hard the first year. Things got better after that, but the need is greater” because growing numbers of people are being afflicted by AIDS, she said.

About 1,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in Orange County, according to Winthrop.