Mason Students Walk to Fight AIDS

Story by Broadside Assistant News Editor Sonya Hudson.
Multimedia by Photography Editor Courtney Erland.

Students showed their support for the 2008 AIDS Walk Washington. About 200 Mason students participated in the AIDS Walk on Saturday. This was the 22nd annual AIDS Walk in Washington, D.C.

The walk is a 5K walk/run fundraiser that benefits the Whitman-Walker Clinic. This clinic is a non-profit, community-based health organization that provides health care and assistance to people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

The Whitman-Walker Clinic, established in 1973, provides primary medical and dental care, mental health and addictions counseling and treatment, HIV education, prevention and testing, legal services, case management and a food bank for those people living with HIV/AIDS.

According to the AIDS Walk Washington 2008 Web site, one in 20 adults in D.C. is infected with HIV. D.C. has a higher rate of HIV infection than most sub-Saharan African nations, according the same Web site. In D.C., African-Americans account for eight out of every 10 cases of AIDS.

The walk that is produced by and benefits the Waltman-Whitman Clinic aims to help reduce these rates in the D.C. area.

The walk began at Freedom Plaza, located at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street, NW, at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4 and the timed run began fifteen minutes earlier at 9 a.m.

Every team or individual participating in the walk raised money through contributing sponsors.

Mason contributed almost $9,000 to the approximately $700,000 raised by the AIDS Walk Washington for the Whitman-Walker Clinic.

For more information on the Whitman-Walker Clinic, visit www.wwc.org.

-Information taken from www.aidswalkwashington.org