AIDS Fund-Raiser Draws 14,000

Catherine Cowden awoke early Sunday to honor an uncle and college friends. Sixty-seven-year-old Betty Head showed up with a T-shirt memorializing her son, snatched away almost a decade ago. Still in his teens, Richard Nguyen dragged a friend along, in the hopes that he would never know anyone who dies of AIDS.

The three joined about 14,000 people at UC Irvine’s Mesa Field on Sunday morning for AIDS Walk Orange County. The event, in its 13th year, raises money for seven Orange County organizations that fight to prevent the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome and assist those living with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes the disease.

At a time when similar walks around the country have seen donations drop, organizers of the Orange County event broke a record this year: raising at least $661,000, $11,000 more than last year, with more donations from corporations expected.

Pearl Jemison-Smith, the walk’s chairwoman and a founder of the AIDS Service Foundation, said her group needs more money than in the past.

“People think, because we have these wonderful drugs, people are living with HIV rather than dying with AIDS,” said Jemison-Smith, explaining why AIDS donations have declined elsewhere. “Yet ASF has seen double the number of clients in the last three years because people are living longer and they need services.”

Despite the serious subject matter, the AIDS Walk seemed festive.

Disco and swing tunes accompanied the walkers, who chose either a 5K or 10K route. From toddlers to octogenarians, people from all walks of life, and every cranny of Orange County, were present.

Many walked for a lost loved one. Others, mainly for the exercise. But all were racking up donations from sponsors for every mile they covered.

Sore joints wouldn’t allow Anaheim resident Head to walk, so she talked instead.

“People need to be reminded that AIDS is still out there,” the silver-haired woman said. “We need to continue to inform the young people: They don’t think it will affect them, and they keep having unprotected sex. But believe me, they don’t know how horrendous the suffering is.”

Head knows. She wore a white T-shirt with the name of her son, Arlan W. Head Jr., emblazoned in glittering gold letters. He died at 29 of AIDS.

Her son was one of 2,804 Orange County residents to die of AIDS by the end of 1998. In all, county health officials have tallied 5,149 cases of the disease here. But AIDS volunteers believe the number of people infected with the virus--whether they know it or not--is about 6,700.

The epidemic is growing most quickly among Latinos. In 1993, whites represented about 79% of Orange County’s AIDS cases, followed by Latinos at 16%, blacks at 3% and Asians at 1%. Now, whites make up 53%, Latinos 38%, blacks 6% and Asians 2%.

Costa Mesa resident Cowden has felt the pain of watching friends and a relative die of AIDS. She has participated in the walk since 1992.

“It’s a ritualistic thing for me,” the 29-year-old said. “My way of hoping that I won’t know anyone else affected by AIDS.”

Katsumi and Cornelius Nicholson brought their 3-year-old daughter, Ceray, to witness the event. While the girl mostly squirmed on her father’s shoulder, Katsumi Nicholson hoped some of the day’s meaning was sinking in.

“We brought her here to give her knowledge, to get her started,” said Nicholson, a Santa Ana resident. “She needs to learn about the real world as soon as possible.”

Like the Nicholsons, Nguyen said he does not know anyone with AIDS. But it’s only a matter of time, the 19-year-old Garden Grove resident said.

So he too set his alarm Sunday.

“What else better can we do with our time?” he asked. “I can sacrifice a few hours of sleep to help other people out.”

Marianne Foss, a 64-year-old Laguna Woods resident, believes changing demographics are forcing Orange County residents to open their eyes to the disease.

“Maybe 10 years ago, Orange County was that conservative place everyone thinks it is,” she said, before striding off on the walk with three friends. “But now, everyone finds that they know someone who’s affected. AIDS is not just something that happens in Hollywood. It happens here too.”