AIDS Walk at 20
Though Diminished, the D.C. Event Draws Thousands
About 4,000 people signed up to participate in the AIDS Walk, but organizers estimated that fewer showed up on the blustery day. "It doesn't seem like people care about this anymore," one participant said.
(Photos By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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Sunday, October 8, 2006
The number 20 loomed large for Larry Bryant yesterday.
In 1986, when the first walk was held in the District to raise money for AIDS prevention, Bryant was a freshman football player at Norfolk State University. He learned he was HIV-positive after donating blood.
Yesterday, Bryant, 39, marked the 20th year since that diagnosis by serving as one of three grand marshals for the 20th annual AIDS Walk Washington, a fundraiser benefiting the Whitman-Walker Clinic, the area's largest provider of health-care services for those with HIV and AIDS.
One of every 20 D.C. residents is HIV-positive, according to city health officials, a figure higher than that of U.S. cities of similar size.
Bryant, who lives in the District, wore a black "Fight AIDS, Not Iraq" T-shirt as he led a few thousand walkers through blustery conditions along the three-mile route that began and ended at Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington. He marched behind a banner with fellow long-term survivors and honorary grand marshals Daniel Zaic, 46, and Danielle Pleasant, 40. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and D.C. Council members David A. Catania (I-At Large) and Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), the Democratic nominee for mayor, joined the group briefly in the procession down Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
About 4,000 people signed up to participate, but organizers estimated that fewer showed up yesterday morning to brave the chill and intermittent rain. "I think the turnout's wonderful, given how nasty it is," said Donald Blanchon, Whitman-Walker's executive director.
At a ceremony before the walk, Blanchon told the crowd that the day had special significance for him because it marked the seventh anniversary of his brother Robert's death from complications related to AIDS.
The event was expected to raise about $500,000.
That figure is far below what the event collected in the late 1990s, when the AIDS Walk consistently attracted more than 20,000 participants and raised at least $1.5 million several years in a row.
Many organizations with charity events experienced a downturn in donations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and public awareness of the high overhead costs involved with similar events such as the AIDS Ride also discouraged some from giving. But those involved also said "AIDS fatigue" has plagued the walk in recent years, as advances in medical treatments have made HIV and AIDS less likely to be a death sentence.
"I think there's a perception among some people that AIDS is a treatable illness, because I can just take a pill and I'll be fine," said Zaic, who learned he was HIV-positive in 1988 after joining the administrative staff of Whitman-Walker. "That's a tragic blunder. These drugs are for life."
Zaic takes a cocktail of medications. He has lost sensation in his feet because of nerve damage and suffers from inflammation of the pancreas, two major side effects from his regimen. Others, such as Bryant and Pleasant, have been lucky enough to remain healthy without taking drugs to control the virus.
