Countywide : 2 Groups Plan AIDS Benefit, Free Camp

A benefit concert and an outdoor recreational camp will be held this weekend by two Orange County organizations that serve AIDS patients and their families.

The “Making a Difference” folk music concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist church in Costa Mesa. Proceeds will support the AIDS Team Ministry, which delivers meals to home-bound AIDS patients. The program is operated by Orange Coast Unitarian and the Metropolitan Community Church.

The concert will feature local musician Guy Richard, who plays the piano and the guitar. Also appearing will be Tom Sanders, Barbara McGraw, and Canton and Rhiannon Clannach.

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased by calling (714) 646-4652, (714) 548-2955 or (714) 646-4213. They may also be purchased at Orange Coast Unitarian, 1259 Victoria St.

The Irvine-based AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County will hold its first family camp Friday to Sunday at Camp Arbolado in the San Bernardino Mountains near Running Springs. There is no admission charge.

The camp is open to those who have a family member found to have AIDS or a HIV-related disease. Bilingual staff members and volunteers can accommodate Spanish-speaking families.

Donna Fleming, the foundation’s director of social services, said the camp may hold the greatest benefit for the “forgotten” people in the AIDS epidemic--children whose parents are found to have the disease.

“These kids do not have a normal childhood,” Fleming said. “Some of them end up taking care of their parents, making sure they take the proper medicine, and in effect, they become the care giver. They end up losing part of their childhood in the process of taking care of Mom or Dad.

“The camp is about letting them be kids again,” she said.

Additional information on the family camp is available from the foundation at (714) 253-1500.