Matan – 3/16/10 – AIDS Walk Office

On Tuesday, March 16^th, I went with Alma, Jasper, Lenny and Adam to the AIDS walk office location in New York. There, we met Shaun Shepherd, the leader and head organizer of the New York City AIDS Walk, to interview him. All week long, we had been prepping for this day, and were extremely excited to finally be able to have an informational meet with him. I was the person asking all of the questions, and Lenny was the one who jotted down notes about what he said, since we stupidly forgot about the tape recorder. But luckily, everything went fine.

. Personal connections: Cousin born infected with HIV
. organization’s linked to Aids Walk: GMHC, Duane Reade, the Gap, Macys, (30 other aids service orginizations
. Importance of AIDS Awareness: Aids is an epidemic. it dosn’t effect one group but it effects the whole world. none of us are immune to it so we all need education and awareness about it. Aurthur Ashe was a streight man who became infected with HIV through blood transfusion and lived with AIDS for 10 years.
. The biggest impact of AIDS: discrimination received due to fear from others.
. Worst TImes: in 70s and 80s people couldn’t recieve alot of treatment.
accomplishment: in 1986, $710,000 were raised, but recently, $105,000,000 was raised.
. who they work for: They work for MZA event Inc. they produce the AIDS walk in New York
. celebrities that did the AIDS walk: Hillary Duff, Whoopie Goldberg, Patty Labbel, Allic Baldwin, Mathew Brodderick, John Stewart, Joe Biden, Nora Jones, Cindy Lauper.
. Huge supporter: Kenneth cole
. How Sean became leader: had been doing the walk since he was 5 in 1991. started interning in 2007 and built his way up.
. His important duties: Hires and supervises the workers and supervises the posts they are working at. (Making sure that everything’s going smoothly)
. What education does: Education in school helps with overall awareness.
. biggest amount of people with AIDS: Women, (large amount are black women)
. why awareness is important: People have to be taught that NOBODY is immune to it.
why crystal meth ad uses slang words: People suffering from problems such as this are lower to middle class people. they don’t want to baby them with scientific words and instead choose to be direct. also the slang words provide schock value and grab the attention of the reader.
. Why women might be bigger victims then men for HIV/AIDS: Their sexual practice might be causing it.
Most Shocking Statistics: There were 50,000 walkers and only 24% of them fundraised. the other 76% might have thought that their money would go to the pockets of the people in charge of AIDS walk. Also, between the ages of 15 and 24, black women are the biggest victims of HIV/AIDS.

After the interview, we all helped organize boxes of posters into neat and orderly lines. We also threw away the empty boxes, which was fun because I believe we were both “wrestling” and destroying the boxes, and recycling them.