12th Annual AIDS Walk Sets Two Records

Thanks to new combinations of drugs, more people are living longer with AIDS, prompting many to figure the crisis is over. It’s not.

While AIDS deaths are declining, the battle against the deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome is becoming even more crucial, activists say.

“Incredible advances in treatment have prolonged my life, but it really is important to let people know that we haven’t eliminated the disease,” said Tom Peterson, 42, who has been living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) for the past decade.

“To let up one iota on the fight against AIDS would be a terrible mistake,” Peterson added. “We can’t let up now.”

That was the unofficial theme of the 12th Annual AIDS Walk Orange County, which attracted a record crowd of 14,000 walkers Sunday.

Participants gathered at UC Irvine, where they set out on a 10-kilometer course around the campus, raising $650,000--the largest amount of money in the event’s history--to help people living with AIDS and HIV.

In contrast to what has been happening here, the number of participants in AIDS walks across the country has been declining, as have the funds raised by such events, because of medical advances in AIDS research and the lower mortality rate.

But David I. Armendariz, director of volunteer services for AIDS Services Foundation Orange County (ASF), which sponsored the event, said Orange County residents understand how urgent it is to continue to raise money and promote awareness.

“More people are living longer, so the needs are greater,” said Pearl Jemison-Smith, a retired nurse and co-founder of Aids Walk Orange County and ASF. “They need help paying for medications, child care, housing and very basic things like food and clothing. . . We’ve come a long way, but it’s not over.”

Jemison-Smith, whose son has AIDS, said proceeds from the walk will fund Orange County organizations that provide services for those living with AIDS and HIV, as well as educational programs.

When it began a dozen years ago, AIDS Walk Orange County attracted 886 people and raised $125,000. Over the years, it has evolved into an annual opportunity for thousands of people to contribute to the cause or to remember loved ones who have died of AIDS.

“This is a terrific cause to be involved in,” said Robert E. Ferguson, regional president of Pacific Bell, which brought 1,000 employees to the walk and contributed $8,000. “Treatment and education about the disease is vitally important. The bottom line is this is a terrible disease and if we can help make a difference, we should.”

The event’s participants walked, jogged, pushed strollers, pulled wagons and roller-bladed around campus.

“We came because we wanted to teach our children about responsibility and because we want to help eradicate this deadly disease,” said Mo McCoy, 41, of Capistrano Beach. She pushed her 3-year-old daughter, India, in a stroller and walked with 7-year-old daughter Amelia and husband, Kevin, who carried their 1-year-old daughter Lily in a baby pack on his back.

“I used to be one of those people who would ignore the whole AIDS issue,” until a friend’s grandfather died of AIDS, said walker Juan Viramontes, 22, of Anaheim. “We can’t ignore it. Nobody’s immune.”

No one survives AIDS, Joan Shaw stressed. The Garden Grove woman, wearing red ribbons and buttons from numerous AIDS walks that she has attended, lost two sons to AIDS.

“I can’t say enough about how important it is to raise money to fight this thing,” she said. “I would give anything to have my sons alive.”

Shaw displayed two quilts with pictures of her sons: Jody, who had worked as a chef at Disneyland, and Steven, a dancer. On Jody’s quilt was a poem she wrote. It read, in part: “Where his suffering ended, ours, it seems, has started. A void has been created . . . The last time I saw him, I blew him a kiss goodbye. In return, he smiled and winked at me with loving in his eye. . . . This is life’s mystery. No matter how I try, I’ll never find the answer to my grieving question, ‘why?’ ”

As of last September, 4,807 AIDS cases had been reported to the Orange County health agency since the syndrome was first discovered more than 15 years ago. Of those cases, 2,694 have died and 2,113 are living. Nationwide, AIDS cases numbered 612,078 as of last year.