Countywide : AIDS Walk to Give $421,500 in Awards

Following the most successful fund-raising effort in its seven-year history, AIDS Walk Orange County has announced it will award $421,500 to service agencies in the county this week.

“I’m so excited about giving out this money,” director JoAnn Ruden said Wednesday. “It’s hard work getting it in, but, boy, is it fun giving it away.”

The money was generated during a June 12 walk that drew a record-breaking 9,000 participants, according to a statement released by AIDS Walk.

Topping the list of recipients is AIDS Response Program, a branch of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Garden Grove, which will receive $110,500.

AIDS Services Foundation, the county’s largest AIDS service group, will receive $89,000, and the Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross, which has a program to train AIDS educators, will receive $86,000.

Other recipients are:

* Orange County Center for Health, which offers an AIDS education program that targets Latinos, $73,000.

* UCI College of Medicine, which is conducting immune system research, $24,700.

* HIV: Women’s Voices, a program created to help women who are HIV-positive, $12,500.

* Shelter for the Homeless, which provides counseling and housing for HIV-infected drug users, $10,300.

* UCI’s AIDS Education Program, $7,000.

* NAMES Project Orange County, which created a quilt in memory of those who have died of the disease, $5,000.

* Annie’s House, a residential care facility for people with the AIDS virus, $2,500.

* Metropolitan Community Church Christ Chapel, which gives teddy bears to people with the virus, $1,000.

Ruden said the amount raised totaled $611,000 and that the remainder of the money went toward other expenses.