Aids Awareness Week A Success On Campus

Good music, free food, light shows and a night of dancing—not something you find every night on a university campus.

Well-dressed men and women crawled through downtown Blacksburg ready to celebrate the end AIDS Awareness Week. The week began Nov. 30 and ran through Dec. 5, but Friday night was the night of celebration at the Club Red Ribbon Dance.

The dance slowly began around 9:30 p.m. and continued strongly through the night until 1:30 a.m. in the Old Dominion Ballroom in the Squires Student Center.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance at Virginia Tech (LGBTA) has helped sponsor AIDS Awareness Week and the Club Red Ribbon Dance for the past decade. Jessica Martin was the chair of this year’s awareness week.

AIDS Awareness Week brought back sad memories for many people, but Virginia Tech student Kimberly Johnson said she celebrated her uncle’s life at the dance instead of grieving his sad dead to AIDS.

Normally a quiet, empty room, the Old Dominion Ballroom was transformed into a hip, upscale club complete with LCD lighting, light projectors and professional DJ, Andrew Cosentino.

The dance offered music, lights, food, drinks and condoms all for free to help spread awareness of HIV/AIDS to the Blacksburg community.

When you first walked into the ballroom you were immediately greeted with an elaborate array of gourmet foods. Fruits, cheeses and freshly baked hors-d-ouerves were elegantly displayed in the foyer. Elegant bar tables lined the walls of the ballroom, adding a sophisticated ambiance to the scene.

The rest of the ballroom was left for dancing. Cosentino got the crowd moving with upbeat music from a variety of genres that never left the crowd unhappy.

The dance was donation based in which patrons could send money directly to Children with AIDS Charities International.

Most of the fundraising, however, was done through the bake sales, a date auction and other money raising events. According to Martin, more than $1,000 was raised.

The week of AIDS awareness was composed of daily educational events and fundraisers from bake sales and free condoms to confidential HIV/ AIDS testing and keynote speakers.

Speakers included Terry McGuire from the Human Rights Campaign, David Nova from Planned Parenthood and Molly McClintock from Equality Virginia.

The speakers discussed the political aspects of HIV/AIDS and what actions are being made to support those affected by the disease.

Other activities throughout the week included a Haymarket Theater showing the documentary Pills Profits Protest, a 5k run and walk benefit on Saturday, a date auction, book signings and a vigil on the Drillfield for those lost to HIV/AIDS.

The dance marked the end of this very “important social, educational and philanthropic week of events,” said Martin.

For many American youths, information about AIDS has been bombarded on them since elementary school, but for Johnson “it’s important to hear this information over and over again so that we don’t forget,” she said.