Walking Strong at Whitman-Walker’s Walk to End HIV
Despite the cold, the community turned out for the Walk to End HIV, raising funds for Whitman-Walker's HIV services
It was a frigid, blustery morning on Saturday, December 7. But the cold weather didn’t stop bundled-up stalwarts from participating in Whitman-Walker’s Walk and 5K to End HIV in Southeast Washington, D.C.
“The decision to move it to Anacostia Park was very intentional,” Dwight Venson, Whitman-Walker’s Director of Community Engagement, says of the 38th annual fundraising event. “We moved it to Anacostia Park last year to align with the opening of our Max Robinson Center, and really to communicate to communities east of the river that we care that we’ve been a part of the fabric of that community, and that an event like the Walk to End HIV matters to the communities that have been most disproportionately impacted by the virus. And we decided to do it in December to align [it] with World AIDS Day.”
Venson estimates that approximately 400 people participated in this year’s event, which has so far raised $386,000 of its $475,000 goal. “It continues to be our largest fundraising event each year,” he says, noting that people can still go to the website and donate through the end of the calendar year.
The money raised, says Venson, “goes to the Whitman Walker Foundation, whose work supports our clinic services and our research institute. We’re very serious about those funds being used for the purposes for which they are intended, of course, to continue to help educate the community about HIV, to provide resources for individuals who need them, and to continue offering that same culturally competent and affirming care that we have become a leader and widely known for.”
To make a year-end donation to the Walk to End HIV, visit www.walktoendhiv.org.
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