Past administrative problems don’t affect turnout
By Craig Gibson
Participants weren’t thinking about the problems that plagued the AIDS Committee of Ottawa (ACO) earlier this year but were focused on raising money for the organization when they walked through parts of Centretown for this year’s AIDS Walk.
“We’re here for a cause, not political reasons,” said Angie Campbell, who was walking with her co-workers. “We’re here out of the goodness of our hearts.”
Sheila O’Gorman, co-ordinator of the Sept. 27 walk, estimated that 2,000 people took part and raised $102,000, the same numbers as last year. At their longest point, the walkers stretched eight city blocks down Bank Street.
AIDS Walk is an annual event held across Canada to raise money for local AIDS organizations.
The main beneficiary from the walk in Ottawa is the ACO, a non-profit association which helps people infected with HIV.
Stephen Brown, chair of the board of directors at the ACO, said AIDS Walk is one of the most crucial fundraising events of the year because it typically accounts for a big part of the organization’s $960,000 yearly budget.
For each of the past two years the walk has raised $60,000 for the ACO, said O’Gorman.
Brown said the ACO experienced some problems in April when the organization’s members were upset after the previous board made budget cuts.
“At that time the board instituted significant changes in direction in terms of service,” he said.
One of the more controversial cuts was going to force HIV-positive clients to seek counselling at outside agencies instead of continuing to have on-site counsellors at the ACO, Brown said.
By June members of the organization were preparing to vote the board of directors out of office when the entire board voluntarily resigned, he said.
“There hadn’t been a good dialogue between the board and the membership,” he added. “The result was a great deal of suspicion among members.”
Ron Chaplin, co-chair of Ottawa’s AIDS Walk, was worried about how these controversies would affect the walk’s fundraising totals this year.
“I expected a slightly negative impact,” he said.
Jim Young, a former member of the co-ordinating committee for the Living Room, a drop-in centre at the ACO providing support to people living with HIV, and author of a Health Canada manual on how to set up HIV drop-in centres, said he had no reservations about supporting the ACO by participating in the AIDS Walk.
“It’s absolutely important to show support. The support has to be there all the time,” he said.
Problems in AIDS service organizations are common, Young added.
“AIDS is an incredibly political issue and it can result in all kinds of problems, divisions and schisms,” Young said.
Megan Taylor, 13, raised $83 going door-to-door collecting pledges from her neighbours.
“It’s a nice walk and we’re raising money to support AIDS. I’m glad to be helping,” she said.
Taylor’s mother, Nora Hammell, a prevention co-ordinator with National AIDS Clearinghouse, said the ACO plays an important role in the community and she hasn’t lost confidence in the organization. “I try to let groups sort out internal problems and I was sorry about media attention to the ACO’s problems.
“Every organization has problems and we don’t want to have people lose their confidence,” she said.