22,000 Walk for AIDS Programs : Health: March sets record in attendance and money. Organizers expect to raise $3.2 million for research and services for patients.

At a time when charitable donations are increasingly hard to come by, AIDS Walk Los Angeles flooded Hollywood streets with 22,000 participants Sunday and was expected to generate $3.2 million for local health organizations, both records for the annual event.

With a celebratory tone, rather than a somber one, participants marched, jogged and rollerbladed in memory of those who have died and in hope for those who remain. Money raised in pledges gathered by the walkers will be used to fund AIDS research and provide food and health services to people with AIDS and HIV.

“I’m tired of all these people dying of AIDS,” said Patricia Guharjardo, a career center clerical worker whose uncle died of the disease last week. “I’m going to keep coming to this walk until they find a cure.”

The event’s organizers say attendance has grown every year since it began in 1985. And under a brilliant sun, a diverse crowd, dotted with celebrities, wound its way through the 10-kilometer route, many sponsored by local companies, schools and community groups.

Chatsworth resident Debbie Roberts, 37, participated in the event in memory of her brother, Eric Roberts, who died of AIDS-related pneumonia in June at age 35.

“There was no reason for him to die other than the fact he had unprotected sex with the wrong person,” said Roberts, who was by her brother’s side every day for nearly three weeks before his death.

Roberts was joined on the walk by her mother, Sybil, of Canoga Park and family friend Lynn Merrill. The women each wore T-shirts with a picture of Eric on the front.

“The easiest way for my brother to deal with [AIDS] was just to ignore it,” Debbie said.

Eric Roberts, who was a copy machine sales and service representative in Van Nuys, discovered he had AIDS in 1989, but didn’t seek medical attention until two months before he died, when he developed a rash over his entire body.

His mother and sister are still “shellshocked” by Eric’s sudden death, Debbie said. Even wearing the T-shirts, which they made for the walk, was difficult. However, the walk was therapeutic for Debbie.

“I loved my brother a lot, and I don’t want someone else to go through what I did when he died,” she said.

Another participant, Frank Simmons, a security guard from Los Angeles, said he was walking because a friend stricken with AIDS asked him to.

“I went out and bought a new pair of shoes to break in,” Simmons said, showing off his Reeboks. AIDS “is on everyone’s mind today. It’s getting worse instead of better.”

Mike Goyak, assistant prop master for the show “Dave’s World,” said he personally raised $2,275 in contributions. But Goyak, who was participating in his eigth AIDS walk, said drawing donations has gotten harder.

“There are so many hands out, people get tired of being asked,” he said.

Craig Miller, who created the event for AIDS Project Los Angeles, agreed that despite the success of the walk, “We see AIDS fundraising events around the country by and large holding even or losing ground.”

That hasn’t stopped Cynthia Parks, an assistant to DreamWorks SKG co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, from netting $100,000 in donations during her decade participating in the walk. Parks was presented with an award during the event’s opening ceremonies, but was too choked up to say anything to the crowd beyond: “Raise more money next year.”

Sunday’s walk precedes by two weeks the 10th anniversary of the death of actor Rock Hudson, whose passing thrust AIDS to the national spotlight. Now California’s largest AIDS fundraiser, the walk has been the genesis for similar annual events in San Francisco, New York and other cities.

The opening ceremonies, held on the Paramount Pictures lot, drew a crowd including actresses Sandra Bullock, Teri Hatcher and Jamie Lee Curtis, Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Willie L. Williams.

“I woke up this morning and I was embarrased to be here, and I felt hopeless,” Curtis told the crowd, which collected in the Paramount Pictures lot before the march. “I was embarrassed because it took the death of my best friend, Richard Frank, three weeks ago, who died of complications from AIDS, to get me here, and I don’t know why . . . I’ve sent in my token donations, and I’ve cried along with other people who have lost friends and family. But I’ve never been here. So what do I have to do? I have to walk the walk. I have to talk the talk.”

Times staff writer Jeannette DeSantis contributed to this article.