JOB CORPS GJCC students continue to make a difference within the community. The below article was featured in the local newspaper. To see it online with pictures click on : http://www.gainesville.com/article/20111208/GUARDIAN/111209656
Armed with the facts that one in every five people with HIV don’t know it and the fact that every nine minutes someone in the U.S. is being infected with HIV, a local organization and some of its friends hit the streets of east Gainesville to educate people and increase awareness in the community about the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Members of Black AIDS Services & Education Inc., a local nonprofit known as BASE, along with several of its community partners, walked through the Duval neighborhood last Saturday morning chanting, passing out condoms and distributing literature about the deadly disease.
It was the 10th year BASE has sponsored the walk to recognize World AIDS Day, which is Dec. 1 every year. Michael Bowie, president of BASE, said the World AIDS Day United Nations theme this year is “Getting to Zero.”
Close to 100 people met at DaySpring Baptist Church to participate in the walk, which began with a 40-minute informational session that featured a performance by students from the Gainesville Jobs Corps Center who participated last month in a visual and performing arts contest sponsored by BASE.
The students, led by 24-year-old rapper/pianist Kenneth White of Petersburg, Va., performed a “Wrap It Up” routine that won him a first-place prize. The routine featured 16-year-old Zana Green of Tampa singing the lyrics “wrap it up” while White played the piano and 19-year-old Robert Marryshow of Brooklyn, N.Y., played the drums.
Another Job Corps student, 19-year-old Calvin Washington of Orlando, recited a poem he wrote that earned him second place in the contest titled “It Only Takes One Time.” He said the poem is about HIV/AIDS and the need to practice safe sex.
Some of the walkers wore white sweatshirts with the slogan, “You Can’t Tell By Looking At Me.” The drawing was created by Jeff Jeudy, a 21-year-old Job Corps medical assistant student from Haiti, who won first place in the visual arts competition.
Teresa White, regional minority AIDS coordinator at the Alachua County Health Department, spoke bluntly about the need for people to get tested. She said even though she is married, she still gets tested once a year.
“I do love my husband, and I love me some Teresa White!” she shouted.
White said for the first time since 1988, AIDS is not the No. 1 killer of black women ages 18-44. She said it is now the No. 2 killer.
Armando Grundy, a candidate for the Gainesville City Commission District 1 seat, also spoke. He said he was participating in the walk because he lost someone to the disease when he was a teenager. Grundy said it had a profound impact on his life. He said the disease doesn’t only affect the people who have it, but their loved ones as well.
“It destroys everybody around you,” he said, adding that it is important for people living with the disease to have a loving support system.
Denise Johnson, a member of BASE, also talked briefly about the disease. She said out of 67 counties in Florida, Alachua County is 18th in the number of new HIV cases reported to health officials.
Phyllis Hilliard, adviser of the Precious Pearls, a group for teen girls sponsored by the Mu Upsilon Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., said she thought it would be a good idea for herself and the girls to participate in the walk.
“I felt a need to be here this morning with the young ladies because I think the earlier we start getting them educated, we can get to the beginning of the process to stop it from spreading,” Hilliard said. “Having had a person in my family to succumb to the disease, I don’t want it to continue.”