I think that the activity itself went very well. I had a lot of fun just supervising the kids on their work. They all seemed to be greatly enthusiastic about the project and were enjoying their time decorating their own individual quilt piece. I also think that the whole organizational aspect really worked. Giving the kids information about HIV/AIDS, talking about our organizations that we went to, then giving the activity. After this happened, they started working. If they had any further questions, they would ask us as we went around the room, but focusing mostly on our individual tables that we picked. We gave them a packet with further information about HIV/AIDS, which they would eventually take home and discuss with their parents about. I thought that being a teacher for two hours was quite exciting, yet a bit hard to grasp since of all the pressure that was riding on my shoulders. I felt prideful having the responsibility to give these kids something to learn about. I felt quite involved and happy once it sunk into my head that I should make the workshop a lot more fun that it seemed on paper with my interactions with the kids. My partners and I basically gave the kids information, and taught them how to display it, explaining this in an involved, and interesting fashion.

What I would have done differently in my workshop is maybe teach a little bit more on HIV/AIDS in our PowerPoint. I felt that there was not all of the information displayed in our PowerPoint, and one of the 20 or so kids that we had, I recall, mentioned that we should have explained more about HIV/AIDS. I felt a responsibility towards this, since I had done much research on HIV/AIDS, but it is a little upsetting finding out that it was not enough, and I feel that it was not. To explain this, I add that we put in as simple information as possible, in order to fit everything in, in 55 minutes. But I really hope that the activity covered the two steps back that we took. It sure seemed like the kids, despite everything, learned quite a lot when it came to the quilt, so that satisfied me quite a lot. The thing that I hope the kids walked away with was an elimination of discrimination towards HIV/AIDS and a new understanding on what it really is, the united-for-a-dreadful-issue feeling behind it, a significant words being “united,” united in goodness, and “dreadful,” purely dreadful. I hope that whenever they hear the mention of HIV/AIDS, they can say something significant about it that they learned in our workshop. I know that what I walked away with in this activity is a healthy, burning passion to help out the needy in our nation, no the world. I feel that it is our obligation to help out the unfortunate people in the world, since, like the girl in her 1990’s speech to the U.N. said, we are fortunate enough to live with more than enough of what we need. This is our chance to give back, to pursue our newly developed knowledge about social justice into a series of volunteering to help any cause that may need help of any kind.

I think what went well in the set-up group was the display of emotion that made the audience think that we felt compassionate about all of the topics having to do with social justice. It seems like the audience felt that we were really trying to make a difference in the world, and I, as well, think that we are too. The song that I participated in playing, I felt, spoke out to everyone in the middle school, whether one heard the lyrics or not. And no one noticed any mess-ups, or any missed notes that we had. It sounded good, and we were able to pull it off as a heartfelt moment. What I would suggest for next year, though, is giving more time per workshop and more time for the set-up groups to prepare for the final day. This would result in an even better and more outspoken Teach-in for the future. Aside from that, I had a very fun time volunteering for the AIDS Walk and Aid For AIDS. I also really liked working along side my classmates, and I think that I will take advantage of this project and further volunteer at the organizations that I volunteered at this year. I hope my partners on this project will join me as well for this needy cause.

On april 5^th, I went with everyone in my group to the AIDS Walk volunteer center. We were sat down at one table, being the 3^rd and only kid-group there. There were three stacks of paper that each of us had to put in envelopes to ive to the people who will participate in the AIDS Walk. One paper had information about the AIDS Walk, another was an ad and the last was a fill-out sheet. I was surprised that there was even more paper work for people to distribute. I did not know that there was a whole envelope distributed, and not just one ad given, and you suddenly show up to the walk. There is more to it. I could now see why it took so long to prepare for the AIDS Walk. It’s not all year round, but they do work several months. They make posters, organize paperwork, organize boxes, recruit volunteers, etc. There is a lot to do, and why shouldn’t there be? This is quite an important issue. Scientists haven’t come up with the remedy yet, but they are still working on it.

Something that bothered me a little bit was the amount of volunteers each time I visited. There were only two groups (on average) that came to the AIDS Walk volunteer center other than us. I was disappointed that there were not many people in the room that took up the whole floor. One would think that more people would volunteer for such an important issue. But on the bright side, that eased the food funding when people came to volunteer.There was good food, an open, calm space, and everyone was quite relaxed and happy nothing like the regular office environment, except for the one in the show. I that that was quite nice.

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.

On Wednesday, the third of March, Alma, Olivia and I went to the Aid For AIDS office in Manhattan. We came into the office and saw dozens of wheelchairs and crutches stacked and covering half of one room. We were surprised to see this because the last time we were there, we saw wheelchairs and crutches just squeezed into one closet. Now that the capacity was well over reached, we were all given a new determination to get things done. We met the usual lady, Hannah, and she led us to the same table we worked at the first time we came. We were given three big stacks of paper, and folded each of them into pamphlets. At first, we did each pamphlet by ourselves, but then I came up with an idea that, I think, bought us a little more time. I said, “Hey, why don’t we make this an orderly process?” So what we did was Alma folded the papers once, and then passed them on to Olivia and I. We completed the folding, and ended up folding a lot. There was never something that did not have to be done in the office, and we were glad to see that this took all of our time, which was roughly about two hours spent there. We folded easily over 200 pieces of paper that would be eventually given to people in 3rd world countries who are too poor to afford things that could help them. These pamphlets were filled with information that they needed to know about AIDS and each of them would come with protection for the male inside. This would help prevent further AIDS cases. After we folded all of the papers, we organized them into a box, and before we knew it, we had finished for the day.

I feel a little regret, though. I thought that we would go in there, feel fine, and talk to the people there. It turned out going the opposite direction. We just sat down, went to work, and did not say or ask much to the people there. There were not many people there, but we still should have asked about the organization a little more than we did. I think that we acted like this because we didn’t feel as comfortable without Sara or the rest of the people there. Despite the fact that we split up our visits, I feel that it went better than it would have with all of us there, or, at least it will go better. I think that we will be fine in the future, and this will work out, if only we would be self-conscience enough. Aside that fact, I like that we were a small group because there were less distractions than usual, and, as a result, an unbelievable amount of work was done. We were quite focused.

On Friday, Sarah, Lenny, Alma, Olivia, Adam, Jasper, Katherine and I went to the New York office of Aid for AIDS. As we came in, we saw a room where there were organized and stacked medicine jars, a closet filled with crutches, wheelchairs, etc. and a few people having a meeting about what to do with and help third-world countries. They were all speaking in spanish, and it was unfortunate that most of us did not know quite a lot of spanish other than “uno,” “senior,” “seniorita,” and “hola.” At the moment, they were focusing on delivering medicine and other aid to help people in Haiti. The task that we were trying to complete at the office was folding posters and pamphlets with information about AIDS. In order to qualify for getting help from the organization, one either had to be HIV positive, or have AIDS. We were split into two groups, one folding posters, with Adam, Olivia and Jasper, and the other folding and placing pamphlets with information about how to prevent AIDS through a tool used during intercourse between two people, to put it into a non-derogatory way, with Lenny, Katherine, Sarah, Alma and I.  This is probably the most often referred to way of getting AIDS. Anyway, that took us about an hour or so until we were done with our task, and had been able to leave. This organization was one of the top organizations having to do with helping with AIDS victims. It sends a lot of medicine and every possible form of aid that they can get their hands on through donations. What they do is distribute donations coming from many caring people to the people in the world with HIV or AIDS. They really try to help people in need, and it obviously shows from their warm and welcoming attitudes.

Organizing donated material, particularly medicine:

The person we worked with (Hannah McDermott):

Donated wheelchairs, crutches, etc: