Asheville’s fourth annual AIDS Walk will take place Saturday, Oct. 4, at 11 a.m. Beginning at Ferguson Auditorium on the Asheville campus of A-B Tech, walkers will then proceed from the college to downtown Asheville’s Pack Square via Biltmore Avenue and back again. The event is free, and children and pets are welcome. Participants are encouraged to bring a nonperishable food or personal-care item for donation to Loving Food Resources, a food pantry that serves people living with HIV/AIDS or in home Hospice care.
“HIV/AIDS is still very much a crisis, here in Western North Carolina,” says Volunteer Services Coordinator Chris Winebrenner of the Western North Carolina AIDS Project, an HIV/AIDS service organization founded in 1986 that provides prevention, education and case-management services at no cost. “Our agency serves over 350 people living with HIV/AIDS, and we meet newly infected clients every week. Many people turn a blind eye to this ongoing epidemic, and that is dangerous for everyone. The AIDS Walk is a chance for our community to step up and say ‘We know and we care.’”
Other sponsors of this year’s AIDS Walk include Asheville Parks and Recreation, Western Carolina Treatment Center, Buncombe County Health Center, Mt. Zion Community Development, Phoenix Transgender Group, Out in Asheville, Asheville Purple Pages and Phi Beta Lambda at A-B Tech. For more information, call 252-7489 or go to www.wncap.org.
