Friends and Family —

I hope this finds you healthy, safe and happy during these uncertain times. I am reaching out to ask you to please support my “virtual” 2021 AIDS Walk to benefit the National AIDS Memorial.

The funds you donate will support the National AIDS Memorial, an organization very near and dear to me, whose work helps ensure that the lives of people who died from AIDS are never forgotten and the story of AIDS is known by future generations — so that never again will a community be harmed because of fear, silence, discrimination, and stigma.

Although this year will look different, I invite you to walk with me (wherever you may be) and reflect on the ways the HIV/AIDS and our current pandemic are continuing to hit some of our most vulnerable populations. For example, in 2018, homeless patients accounted for nearly 20% of newly diagnosed HIV cases in San Francisco despite representing 1% of the population, African American and Latino men continue to have the highest annual rates of infection, and in 2018 youth aged 13 to 24 made up 21% of new HIV diagnoses. I am walking with the National AIDS Memorial Team and we walk to remember those who we have lost, as well as to raise awareness that the AIDS pandemic is NOT over. As we face yet another pandemic, the stories of the AIDS crisis are all the more important and we must pull the threads of the lessons from AIDS through to the current COVID-19 crisis.

If you are able, please consider helping me reach my $1,500 goal: sf.aidswalk.net/anniewilson