By Laila Meleigy , Online Forty-Niner
April 24, 1997
The AIDS Walk of Greater Long Beach will once again take place on Sunday and, according to the organizers, it could be the best and biggest yet.
There are more teams signed up this year then ever before and plans to raise more money then previous years seem attainable, according to event organizers.
The route will start and end at The Promenade in downtown Long Beach, near Pine Square. It will travel along Ocean Boulevard and return on the bicycle path along the beach. Downtown restaurants and businesses will set up concessions on The Promenade for the participants.
The walk helps to partially fund 14 community AIDS-based agencies. AIDS Project Long Beach, which takes 50 percent of the money raised and helps 300 AIDS patients, is one of them, said Ellen Ward, the executive director of the AIDS Walk organization.
Since 1988, the year the first AIDS walk occurred, more than $1 million has been raised and distributed to local agencies, Ward said. The board of trustees has made a concerted effort this year to increase corporate sponsorship.
Long Beach has the second highest incidence of AIDS infection in Southern California with 2, 685 residents living with the virus, said Bill Tanner, the director of the AIDS project and a psychologist.
Long Beach is the nation's 34th largest city and it ranks fifth in HIV and AIDS incidence per 100,000 people in the nation. This is possibly due to the large homosexual population in Long Beach, Tanner said.
In Long Beach, there is a rise in infection among young people between the ages of 17 and 25 and also among women, particularly African-American women, Tanner said.
AIDS patients prefer to come to Long Beach rather then go to Los Angeles where they become another number, Ward said.
No cure has yet been found for AIDS and the number of infected people is on the rise, so the organization needs more time and money, she said.
"We need all the help we can get," Ward said.
For more information or to volunteer, one can contact Ellen Ward at (562)
987-5200.