The Flames versus The Oilers. The Stampeders versus The Eskimos. AIDS Calgary versus HIV Edmonton? It’s true, the competition continues between our cities in a whole different way, with one common goal: raising funds, awareness and education about HIV/AIDS.

“We call it friendly because that is the polite thing to do,” AIDS Calgary’s Amanda Chapman said, making it clear that Calgary plans to destroy Edmonton.

“We are going to really give Calgary a good whipping!” replied HIV Edmonton Executive Director Debra Jakubac. “[AIDS Calgary Executive Director] Susan Cress and I are quite friendly but we can be very competitive when it comes to things like this.”

The idea of competing came arose when both sides realized they had similar fundraising goals for 2008.

“We have the same mandate, to serve our community in Alberta’s two major cities. We were kicking around ideas with HIV Edmonton and realized that in every other arena where Edmonton and Calgary come to a head there is a competition. We have very similar goals. When we originally started talking about it, it was a staff to staff and board to board challenge, but we blew the whole thing out to being ‘who will raise the most money overall for the walk?’” Chapman explained. “Our board of directors, once they heard about this challenge, have stepped up their fundraising goal to be bigger than it has ever been, $20,000 this year, because they want to annihilate Edmonton’s board in fundraising. We are working towards the same goal but we all know Calgary is the better city than Edmonton and this is just another way to prove our worth.”

“There are a lot of parallels between the two organizations, working with some similar populations but at the same time the two cities are different,” added Jakubac. “We see our infection rate higher in people who use injection drugs and theirs are higher among men who have sex with men and gay men. Together we want to raise funds and battle it out in the Alberta showdown.”

Since AIDS was first recognized in the US in 1981, much progress has been made, and what was once a death sentence has become more manageable. It hasn’t gone away however, and unfortunately has lead to some complacency.

“HIV/AIDS has kind of fallen off the map in Canada. When people think about it they think about it in Alberta. But it is an issue in Alberta and rates are increasing in Calgary and Edmonton. The reason we are doing this showdown is to bring the focus back to HIV/AIDS in Alberta,” said Jakubac

“There has definitely been a shift in perception, a lot of people think about HIV now as a chronic illness rather than something that is life threatening. While new treatments do allow people to live quite a bit longer then they did in the 80’s when it was peaking, it is still a big threat in our community,” added Chapman. “It is important to recognize that HIV is still a disease that will kill you. It might not kill you as quickly as it used to, but there is no mistaking the fact that it is a disease that will result in fatality.”

Shockingly, instead of falling, rates have increased in recent years. In 2005 Alberta had 175 new cases, 223 in 2006 and 225 in 2007.

“I think there are lots of reasons for the increase. The population is growing and lots of people are moving here before they have jobs or places to work. So they are getting into situations where they don’t have somewhere safe to be - it may be easier to get into situations that are unsafe,” explained Jakubac. Both pointed to recent media reports of a major outbreak of syphilis in Alberta as an example.

“Syphilis was at a point where it was eliminated, and then recently there has been news coverage about the rates in Alberta having spiked in a huge way. So we don’t feel that we can just stop doing prevention, education and awareness raising around HIV because we don’t ever want to see those rates actually spiking the way we have seen those syphilis rates do,” said Chapman.

”It shows that people aren’t using condoms. So it takes a little bit more work to get the message out there,” said Jakubac. All money raised goes towards programs for each organization, which very much need funding to stay alive. “What makes it more challenging is we have recently received funding cuts from the federal government. Alberta alone will see $50,000 less in money for HIV/AIDS programming.”

Both events take place on Sunday, September 21st. Both explained what to expect in their respective city.

“Edmonton’s walk is at City Hall and goes through the downtown core to the legislature building and back to City Hall. We have entertainment before and after, registration starts at 11am and the walk starts at 1:30pm. Last year we had 300 walkers, this year we are looking for 500 because we are really out there pushing it. We also have about 80 volunteers.”

“We are anticipating we will have about 1000 Calgarians participating between walkers, volunteers, sponsors and staff. We have a bunch of new entertainers on our bill this year. We try to maintain a fun, inviting event for everyone, a family based kind of event. We’ve got a couple of different bands, folk singers, a country band, belly dancers, a whole kids tent area with face painting and storytelling. We always have a big BBQ lunch after the walk. So we do make it into a big morning-long event.”

There are several key people that need to be thanked for making the event succeed, including volunteers, the walkers themselves, those that pledge, and of course the sponsors.

“Our sponsors are very important to us. We have some great sponsors this year. We have some companies actually sponsoring kilometers. MP Laurie Hawn who walks every year sent out a challenge to other politicians in the area to raise more money than him,” said Jakubac.

”We couldn’t do the event without the support of our sponsors. They give us everything from advertising to hamburgers, water, tents we use on site, print costs, web design,” added Chapman. “The costs of putting on an event like a walk can be really prohibitive. Our goal is maximize how much money we are raising for our programs through our fundraising efforts, so every dollar that we get from our sponsors is a dollar more we are putting into our programming at AIDS Calgary. I can’t say enough of them.”

Hopefully, the walk and publicity generated will remind people that HIV/AIDS is still very much a part of our communities and serve as a wake up call for those who may have disregarded it.

“If we can reduce the rate of infection by working together, even as a challenge, for me that is really important. I look at the community of men who have sex with men and gay men, we see those rates are increasing. If we can get the message out to the GLBTT community that HIV/AIDS is still an issue in their community and every other community, we have made a great effort,” concluded Jakubac.

Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life

Sunday September 21, 2008

http://www.calgaryaidswalk.com

http://www.edmontonaidswalk.com