Contact: Muriel Banares or
Carmen Ramos Chandler ,
(818) 677-2130
mbanares@exec.csun.edu

Personal Stories Carry CSUN Team Through AIDS Walk

More than 1,000 people are expected to make up Team CSUN as they join teams from across the Southland to raise awareness of AIDS/HIV and continue research efforts to fight the disease.

This year's AIDS Walk theme is "I walk because..."

Every member of Team CSUN has his or her own reasons for participating. Team members talk about why they are going to walk 10 kilometers on a Sunday morning:

• Vicki Allen, Student Development and International Programs Activities Director

  "AIDS does not discriminate. It does not matter who you are or where you are from - no one is immune," said Allen.

  When Allen's college mentor died of AIDS, it opened her eyes to the health risks involved with the disease.

  "Everyone should be involved - or at least educate themselves about AIDS and HIV," Allen said. "AIDS is a major public health issue, making it everybody's issue."

  Every year, Allen contributes time and money to AIDS Project Los Angeles. She walks. She dances. She volunteers.

  "I don't necessarily contribute a lot of money, but I go and put in time because everyone should be making a difference," she said.

• Sister Pat Boroughs, Director of the Catholic Newman Ministry at Cal State Northridge and member of the HIV/AIDS Advisory Board for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles

  Sister Pat has provided spiritual support to AIDS/HIV patients for more than 10 years.

  Fred was one of many patients with whom Sister Pat has worked. She turned a silver bracelet with a gold ribbon on her wrist as she remembered her friend. An inscription reads "until there is a cure."

  "This is from Fred's parents. He died in June," Sister Pat said. "I promised his parents I would wear it all the time and I do - it keeps his memory close to me."

  Over the years, she has seen many people die of AIDS and as a tribute, she walks in the AIDS Walk every year with a list of their names in her pocket.

  "I see their faces as I walk, and the list helps to keep them close. This is my way of remembering and giving thanks - of keeping them, like Fred, alive in my heart."

• Colleen Frenck, Student Development and International Programs Clerical Assistant

  "I walk for Dan," said Frenck, referring to a friend whom she considered a mentor and a role model to her daughter, a CSUN graduate. "I found him to be a terrific person and an enterprising young man. I walk because I love him as the man he was and as a person. He showed me that we need to make a contribution to society."

  She said Dan provided strength and support to her family during very trying times. He died of AIDS in 1990 with side effects of total blindness and deafness. At the time, he was a 23-year-old college student.

  "AIDS is a frontier disease," said Frenck, "and it is necessary that we do what it takes to promote federal funding to research -walking is a small way to prove a point."

  Frenck recalled Dan's death.

  "What he experienced was horrendous and debilitating; yet this disease opens the door to the study of other immune system diseases. When we solve AIDS," in Frenck's belief, "we will have a major key to all diseases."

• Fred Strache, Interim Vice President of Student Affairs

  Fred Strache became involved with the AIDS Walk Team seven years ago to help him deal with the pain of losing three friends to AIDS.

  "I want to educate people - especially students - about HIV and AIDS," said Strache. "I saw the AIDS Walk as the opportunity to get students involved and to learn about the disease."

  The team has become a great thing, he said.

  He said the CSUN Team has helped people reach beyond the emotions and start healing. He added that the AIDS Walk has become a valuable tool for university spirit and a chance for people to get to know each other.

• Curtis Woods, a senior majoring in economics

  As the head of community service for Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, Curtis Woods, is focusing on pushing student involvement on campus - especially among African-Americans.

  He sees the AIDS Walk as the opportunity to get students involved and have the fraternity become more visible in the campus community.

  "HIV is a non-discriminating virus that people don't know about and we want to help students open their eyes on how they can prevent contracting it," Woods said.

  He said he sees his fraternity serving as a conduit for students to talk about the disease. He personally hopes to sign up more than 150 people to walk.