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Dear Circle of Friends —

This year, as I have done in the past, I will be joining thousands of walkers at AIDS WALK SF as part of the National AIDS Memorial team in a joint effort to raise awareness, raise money to assist those affected, and bring an end to HIV/AIDS. AIDS WALK SF 2024 is taking place Sunday, July 21, in Golden Gate Park. For the last 7 consecutive years, the National AIDS Memorial’s walker team has been the #1 fundraising team, a proud achievement! I look forward to maintaining this distinction in 2024.

I’m writing to invite you to join me in supporting my walk. My goal this year is $5,000. You stand beside me in so many ways already. Won’t you please consider supporting my walk financially? Every dollar you DONATE to my walk will go DIRECTLY to support the work of the National AIDS Memorial.

Many of you know my work with the Memorial through my 25 years of volunteering at the National AIDS Memorial Grove. For the better part of those years, my work included serving on the Memorial’s Board of Directors, of which I’m a current board member. During that time, in addition to receiving recognition for the public space that is the Grove, the organization grew to include the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship, the Mary Bowman Arts in Activism Award, the Surviving Voices oral history video project, and the acquisition and stewardship of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. I am so proud to have had a role in bringing the Quilt back home to San Francisco and the Bay Area in 2020. The programs and projects of our nation’s AIDS Memorial share one abiding mission: By sharing the story of the struggle against HIV/AIDS, we remember, in perpetuity, the lives lost, we offer healing and hope to survivors, and we inspire new generations of activists in the fight against stigma, denial, and hate for a just future.

Why I walk…

I joined AIDS Walk SF and walked for the first time in 1987. At the time, my late partner, Bobby Hilliard, was on the staff at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, creating and establishing the first databases of statistical and client information. Bobby was HIV positive when we met. I walked then in support of, and in love with, Bobby. I also committed myself at this time to walk in memory of those who departed their lives too early and in memory of those who cared for them.

I remind myself often that action brings motivation; it’s not the other way around. Action builds COMMUNITY, which fertilizes CONNECTION. CONNECTION builds heart health, mental health, physical health, and your spirit's health. CONNECTION builds COMMUNITY. CONNECTION and COMMUNITY keep hope and memory alive. I walk for CONNECTION and COMMUNITY.

From the very earliest days of the AIDS pandemic, we have demonstrated that through individual and community action we can make a difference. I have witnessed one person’s efforts become a group effort, and a group effort become a community effort. I witnessed this happening many times over in the earliest days of the AIDS crisis. When there was virtually no support due to fear, ignorance, stigma, and more; when those affected by HIV were ignored, shunned, cast aside, and othered…I watched as individuals rose up, over and over. They rose and CONNECTED. They built COMMUNITY and RESILIENCE. They fought FOR social justice and health justice and they fought AGAINST fear, ignorance, and stigma. This is why I walk. This is why I volunteer.

These reasons for walking have become meditations, prayers. The following is an intimate meditation I use as I walk through life. I will be breathing it when I walk Sunday.

Let life touch your soul; it is the essence of a spiritual self. Let the divine do its dance; something will touch you greater than yourself. It’s how you experience spiritual growth. If you’re busy changing life, life cannot change you. Let life happen and life will take you into yourself. Surrender to the universe; it will help you purify. You are here to evolve your soul. Today, I let go and experience. Today, I let my soul touch life.

Be here, now. Let life touch you. Let life move you.

I am profoundly grateful to the founders and legacy boards, the staff and volunteers, and the past donors and supporters of the National AIDS Memorial for their leadership, vision, risk-taking, and continued support.

Thank you for considering supporting my walk this year, and thank you most especially for your friendship and support in life.

Warmest regards,

Tom