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AIDS Walk Michigan to donate portion of proceeds to Katrina fund

DETROIT – AIDS Walk Michigan announced Sept. 8 that they will donate a portion of their profit from this year's walks to the Katrina HIV/AIDS Emergency Fund at the National AIDS Fund.
The decision was made by the Walk's board members via an email vote on Sept. 7.
Each participating city – Detroit, Flint, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Traverse City, and Bay City – will donate 5 percent of their 2005 walk net profit.
"This was a hard decision to make, but it's the right thing to do," said AIDS Partnership Michigan Executive Director and President of the Board of AIDS Walk Michigan Barb Murray. "While our funding may be really, really tight right now, we aren't facing the enormous problems that these folks are who are the HIV/AIDS service providers in the Gulf Coast."
"They're doing what they can as best they can," she said, "and this is an obvious way for us to support them."
Murray said that an APM volunteer who worked for three days doing assessments at an intake center in Southfield for hurricane evacuees encountered several who were HIV positive. Only one of those individuals had medication.
"It has become very clear to us over the last few days that this storm has certainly impacted lots of people but we're very aware of people living with HIV who are facing enormous problems," said Murray.
Murray said the National AIDS Fund was a good choice. "It's an organization that we have worked with in the past, our local Michigan AIDS Fund is the community partner of the National AIDS Fund," she said. "We know these folks, we've seen them, we know who they are and how they work. This is a very legitimate organization and we can be sure that what we're able to provide will go to people in need with HIV/AIDS."
Ann Phillips, program director at Steppin' Out, the group that puts on AIDS Walk Detroit, said that their board, too, considered the hurricane's impact on people with HIV/AIDS, but that they decided to keep the money raised in the local communities. "We're concentrating on the local area and will help support those families that have relocated here," Phillips said. "So we're supporting the local community and those who are coming in through the local agencies here."

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