Thousands Participate In Annual AIDS Walk

www.ny1.com

May 18, 2008

United States

About 45,000 people circled Central Park as part of the 23rd annual AIDS Walk New York Sunday and raised more than $7 million for the fight against AIDS. 

According to organizers, it is the most money ever raised by an AIDS walk in the United States. 

The walk, which began in the morning, benefited dozens of charities including Gay Men's Health Crisis. 

When the event first began, only about 4,500 people took part. Organizers say ten times that amount pounded the pavement Sunday. 

People either walked as individuals or in teams for six and a half miles. 

"My brother will always be with me," said Monique Parker, who participated in her second AIDS walk in memory of her brother, who died of the disease. "Right now, I know he's looking down on me and he would really be proud of what I'm doing." 

Parker said her team has nearly tripled since last year. 

“It's just an incredible feeling being here with everybody, you know, we're walking for one purpose," said Parker. 

The sisters of AIDS victim Tom Quinn raised $3,300. 

"It makes us feel closer to our brother, that he didn't die in vain and hopefully nobody else will have to go through the pain we experienced," said Quinn's sister Ann Lyons. 

Another team represented Ilka Tanya Payan, a former deputy commissioner of Human Rights for former Mayor David Dinkins. 

"[Payan] was a major loss to the Dominican community because she put the lives of so many people together, and we weren't there for her, we couldn't put hers back together," said the team's captain. 

Brooklyn-Queens Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner said he commissioned analysis that shows the number of new infections among young people is increasing. 

"There's starting to be signs that all of the lessons that were learned, some of the messages that were sent and some of the services we've provided, are all starting to slip when it comes to the younger people coming along now,” said Weiner. 

“You know, I probably would have been dead without the research and the new drugs. And if people like GHMC hadn't pushed our government, they wouldn't have spent a dime,” said walker David Pigeon, who has been living with AIDS for 20 years. 

Pigeon thought people did not care about fighting AIDS anymore, until he showed up to Central Park. 

"I really thought people were becoming kind of immune and saying nothing is ever going to change, but the fact that there's so many people proves that I was wrong," said Pigeon. 

Organizer Marjorie Hill noted there is reason for hope, saying, "The numbers of people living with HIV is increasing and so the goodwill and conscience of the people who support us is also increasing." 

Free HIV tests and counseling were provided at the walk, and contraceptives were distributed.

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