Students, politicians, parents and children gathered at
California State University, Dominguez Hills bright and early
Saturday morning with one task in mind ““ completing a
5-kilometer walk in support of eradicating HIV/AIDS, an epidemic
that affects over 40,000 people per year in the United States.
In its eighth year, the Southern California 5K AIDS Walk for
Minority Women and Children is co-sponsored by representative
Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Carson, and the League of African
American Women. Founded by Millender-McDonald, the League of
African American Women is an organization that emphasizes
community-building educationally, economically and culturally, with
a strong focus on health.
UCLA’s participation in this event has grown tremendously
in the past three years and is now one of the walk’s largest
contributors.
UCLA Government and Community Relations and the UCLA AIDS
Institute provided T-shirts, hats, water bottles and snacks for the
participants.
Three years ago, UCLA brought seven walkers to the event. This
year over 100 participants from various campus organizations and
affiliations came out to support the cause. UCLA has
contributed close to $3,000 over the past three years.
Mike Swords, assistant director of federal relations at UCLA and
coordinator of this event on UCLA’s behalf, expects the
number of participants to increase in the future.
“It has gotten bigger every year; I would like to get 200
involved next year. … I would like to see this become a
fixture,” Swords said.
The 5K AIDS Walk for Minority Women and Children is the first
AIDS walk that solely focuses on minority women and children.
Millender-McDonald led the opening ceremonies, encouraging and
praising participants for their time and support in fighting for an
issue that greatly affects minority women and children.
Though the walk is focused on women and children, Mannik
Sakayan, another assistant director of federal relations at UCLA,
stressed the importance of educating the public about this disease
that anyone can contract.
“This is a big issue for everyone. What is really critical
is education. … Prevention has a lot to do with education and
access. AIDS affects all walks of life ““ it’s not
a disease of a socio-economic class,” Sakayan said.
Leading UCLA’s team at Saturday’s event was UCLA
football coach Karl Dorrell, who participated for the first time
this year. Dorrell said one of his missions is to get involved in
community issues.
“It’s a world issue, but you have to attack things
one at a time. The best way to do our part is to support these
issues within our community,” said Dorrell, who plans on
being involved in some capacity with next year’s walk.
The idea for such a walk originated 10 years ago when a doctor
from the Oasis Clinic, an AIDS treatment clinic at the King-Drew
Hospital, sought the help of Millender-McDonald when his patients
did not have adequate resources to pay for their treatments.
At this time, D. Marie Chappell-Battle was president of the
League of African American Women and decided to take matters into
her own hands by attending a workshop in New York about walks of
this nature.
“This is the congresswoman’s child, and it is
growing every year,” Chappell-Battle said. “What is
beautiful about this is that its one of the only community-based
AIDS walks in the country, and now we are trying to get started in
two other locations.”
Chappell-Battle, who stepped down from her position last year,
estimates that over 5,000 people registered this year and said she
hopes that one day it will reach 10,000.
Proceeds from the walk will benefit several clinics in Southern
California, including Charles Drew Oasis Clinic, Harbor UCLA
Pediatrics AIDS Unit, T.H.E. Clinic, Watts Health Clinic, Long
Beach Memorial Pediatrics AIDS Clinic and the Asian Pacific AIDS
Intervention Team.
With reports from Narges Zohoury, Bruin reporter.