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Today is known globally as World AIDS Day, and University of Maine students and alumni have banded together to spread awareness.
Events to “spread the word, not the virus,” the theme of this year’s AIDS day, are being planned by the Progressive Student Alliance.
Sarah Bigney, a senior international affairs major, said the group is planning a bake sale to raise funds for AIDS prevention efforts in South Africa and a vigil in front of the library at 6:30 p.m. “A Closer Walk: AIDS in the World,” a documentary narrated by actors Glenn Close and Will Smith, will be shown at 7 p.m. in 100 Donald P. Corbett business building.
Matt Lief, an alumni from the class of 2004, contacted senior Mike Lincoln to assist him with his Ubunta Education Fund in South Africa. Lincoln is responsible for the bake sale, including cookies, treats, pies and more. The proceeds will go to Lief’s group, which provides medicine and AIDS education to South African children.
Lincoln contacted PSA for collaboration because both parties have similar goals. The groups arranged to set up tables in Nutting Hall, Memorial Union and DPC after the documentary presentation.
Rachel Duplessis, a member of the Peer Educators, discussed the planned vigil they are sponsoring, where candles will be handed out, information about HIV-AIDS will be provided and a moment of silence will be observed remembering those who have died from AIDS and to think about those who are currently suffering from HIV.
Angela Fiandaca, the graduate assistant for Peer Ed, sees the vigil as a moment to “remind ourselves that this is the most preventable virus there is, and that we all need to work together to prevent its spread.”
Duplessis said the Greek Peer Eds and Eastern Maine AIDS Network will all be participating. Dean of Students Robert Dana is scheduled to speak.
Peer Ed sponsors events every year for World AIDS Day. The objective of these events is to “promote awareness about an important issue that is oftentimes overlooked by the college-age population.”
Fiandaca believes this demographic often feels a sense of invincibility to the virus, but that “AIDS does not discriminate, so it could happen to anyone.” The overriding purpose, Fiandaca added, is to “get people thinking about how they can make a difference in the face of AIDS.”
While Duplessis and Fiandaca support teaching and providing information to students, they emphasize that their goal is not to preach to students.
“We are here to provide the information and then let students decide what to do with it,” Fiandaca said. “Talking about HIV and AIDS is the first step toward a necessary conversation among all of us.”
The hope, Fiandaca said, is that people bring something valuable to their own lives and the lives of their friends. She stressed the importance that people support these events and realize that “HIV and AIDS happen here in this community.”
