World AIDS Day
This Wednesday, December first, is World AIDS Day. This year’s theme is Universal Access and Human Rights. In Walla Walla, the non-profit organization Blue Mountain Heart to Heart (BMH2H) will sponsor several events highlighting efforts to make education, prevention and care available to all, here in Southeastern Washington.
This year’s events
At 5:30 pm on December 1st, participants are invited to gather at the corner of First and Main for a candlelight vigil. Three a capella groups from Whitman College will perform: The Sirens of Swank, Schwa, and the Testostertones. Following the ceremonial candle-lighting, at 6 pm, we will march to the First Congregational Church (Palouse and Alder) for a memorial service.
The non-sectarian Memorial Service will feature an original dance made for the event by Idalee Hutson-Fish and a vocal performance by Diane Gray-Chamberlain. Brief remarks will be made by Casey Burns on her work fighting AIDS in Kenya, Tumi Monthei, a Whitman College Senior, on the disease in his native Botswana, and Jill Dickey, BMH2H Program
Director and Case Manager will describe the local battle. Refreshments will follow the service provided by members of PFLAG and the church’s Women’s Fellowship.
World AIDS Day is a time to celebrate, to learn and to remember. It is an opportunity to reflect on those lost to the global pandemic, the heroes who have fought to end the plague, and to rededicate ourselves as a community to the continuing struggle to educate in order to prevent new infections—especially among our youth—and to care for those in our midst already infected.
Blue Mountain Heart to Heart provides support and assistant to persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families. Their services include: Free HIV testing, counseling, alternative treatments resources and syringe exchange.
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