Front Runners Wellness Room Naming

Friday, February 4, 2011 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

ASC/Union Square, 41 East 11^thStreet, Manhattan

ASC will dedicate the Front Runners NY Wellness Center in our Union Square facility, providing people living with HIV/AIDS a special venue for training sessions and wellness programs.  It’s named for Front Runners New York, a remarkable group of lesbians, gay men and gay-friendly athletes with a strong commitment to helping people living with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses. “Front Runners’ commitment to fitness and wellness is a perfect match for ASC’s holistic services that help people living with HIV/AIDS to stay strong, balanced and healthy,” says Sharen Duke, ASC CEO.  Join us for this inspiring ceremony.

FRNY has partnered with ASCNYC on health initiatives like the Front Runners New York Annual Gift Basket Extravaganza, which collected and wrapped warm-weather clothes and gift cards for people living with HIV/AIDS.  FRNY is also creating a beginners’ running clinic at ASC in the New Year. “Front Runners New York feels blessed this holiday season to give back to those in need,” says FRNY president Rob Lennon.  “Our partnership with AIDS Service Center furthers our mission of building a healthier life through running to LGBT and LGBT-supportive people.” 

One Hour Swim

Sunday, January 30, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

John Jay College, 899 10^thAvenue, Manhattan

ASC is proud to be one of this year’s beneficiaries of Team New York Aquatics’ 21^stannual “One Hour Swim”, January 30^that John Jay College.  

The One Hour Swim works like a wetter, more athletic AIDS Walk.  Swim team members gather pledges from friends and families and then jump in a pool and swim for one hour…without stopping!  Throughout the event, ASC staff and volunteers will be poolside, cheering the swimmers on and providing them with sports drinks, protein bars, healthy snacks, and at the end of the hour, ASC masseuses provide rejuvenating body massages for the swimmers. 

As always, we send profound appreciation and admiration to Team NY Aquatics and One Hour Swim organizers, swimmers, and donors.

You can help us make this year's annual holiday events a success.

Each year, ASC hosts Thanksgiving and December holiday gatherings for clients, bringing warmth and friendship to people who can find the holidays a lonely time.

Your donation to ASC's annual holiday gift drive will guarantee a brighter celebration for the men, women, and families we serve.

Here are five easy ways to bring out your inner Santa:

1. Food Pantry Items. Donate a turkey and all the trimmings for families in need (stuffing, pies, and sides such as canned beans and corn).
2. Get Carded. Donate a gift card to a retail shop where an ASC client can buy clothing and other necessities. (Suggestions: Old Navy, the Gap, K-Mart, Macy's, etc.)
3. Warm Clothes. Donate winter clothing such as hats, gloves, and scarves for adults.
4. Kid Around. Donate books, games, videos, CDs, DVDs, or toys for children up to 15 years of age.
5. Use Your Imagination. ASC clients will also appreciate donations of new cosmetics, toiletries, warm clothing, and other fun and useful items.

Support ASC today and join us in our mission of "helping many, one by one" throughout the holidays, and every day. To learn more, contact Brooke Brailey at (212) 645-0875 x 303, or email brooke@ascnyc.org  (All donations are tax deductible).

Celebrate Pride Month By Participating in Front Runners New York's Annual Pride Run!

On June 26, 2010, New York Road Runners and Front Runners team up to produce the 29th Annual Front Runners New York Lesbian & Gay Pride Run, a five-mile run in Central Park. This is a great way to celebrate Pride Weekend with some fresh air in Central Park and to be a part of a fun and exciting day. More than 5,000 women and men of all levels and ages are expected to be trotting the course and will share in pre- and post-race entertainment. As the premiere athletic event of Pride Weekend, the Pride run is an inclusive event celebrating health, fitness and community. You can enjoy music, get exercise, meet new friends and perhaps win some great raffle prizes. Last year's prizes included a trip to Vienna, round-trip domestic flights through Continental and Equinox gym memberships. The race starts at 9:00 am with a festival before and after the run. All proceeds benefit charity. Sign up today! For more information about the race and to register, click on the following link: http://nyrr.org/races/2010/r0626x00.asp

FRNY, a running club for lesbians, gay men and supportive others with over 500 members, has formed a two-year partnership with AIDS Service Center NYC. In addition to its financial contributions to ASC, FRNY is committed to bringing its mission of healthier living through running to the ASC community. Please stay tuned for information about the new FRNY Wellness Room at the Union Square location and a special run leading from the new Keith Haring ASC Harlem Center in East Harlem on Sunday, May 23 (Keith Haring ASC Harlem Center, 315 East 104th Street, at 2nd Avenue). For more information about Front Runners New York, please visit www.frny.org. The club has runs for people of all levels every Wednesday night and Saturday morning and is always looking for newcomers!

Women's support group in East Harlem.

The Keith Haring Foundation is helping ASC to transform our East Harlem offices through a renovation and naming grant that will boldly present Haring's iconic artwork while sustaining a safe space for Harlem residents to find respect, connection, and care.

The New York City Council is backing the initiative as well. Under the leadership of Councilmember Melissa Mark Viverito, the Council will help outfit ASC's Keith Haring Harlem Center with high-tech equipment and ergonomic furniture. This comfortable, welcoming environment will let us provide peer education, HIV testing, and support groups in a warm setting that feels like ‘home.'

About our Harlem services: ASC serves more than 2,600 New Yorkers affected by AIDS each year, and over half of them reside in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx. ASC's Harlem Community Center on East 104th Street provides HIV testing, peer education and access to care services close to where clients live. Connecting people to medical care, helping them find housing, and educating about health-risk prevention, are all part of our work.

With that in mind, we've also mobilized support from partners to expand HIV testing and access to care throughout Harlem.

Mount Sinai's Jack Martin Clinic is expanding its Harlem community-based services through partnership with the ASC Keith Haring Harlem Center. Together, we will ensure full access to our range of services; we'll escort patients to medical appointments, help them with medication and treatment adherence, facilitate support groups, and advocate with public benefits systems.

This comprehensive care coordination model keeps low income HIV-positive men and women in quality HIV care – and improves health.

How you can build for the future with us in Harlem

Renovation of the ASC Keith Haring Harlem Center will begin this fall. The Keith Haring Foundation will co-host our ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2010. Become a part of our tapestry of support – and make the ASC Keith Haring Harlem Center vision a reality. Naming opportunities include private counseling rooms, cooking facilities, group meeting spaces, and a garden. A website of the renovation with before and after photos will launch soon! For more information, contact Anne West-Church, Director of Development and Communications, (212) 645-0875 ext. 373 / anne@ascnyc.org.

Photo: David Nager/ASCNYC

Three years ago, I found out that a family member had HIV. That was the first time I became aware of HIV/AIDS, and it was a real wake-up call.

I'm 29 years old and living in a shelter with my four kids, twins (a boy and a girl) who are 7 years old, a 4 year old daughter, and a 2 month old son. I used to just sit in my room and cry. The shelter is so difficult. I see women who have been there for years and nothing changes for them. I don't want that for me and my kids.

Then one day I met John from ASC standing in front of the shelter, handing out flyers and talking about AIDS prevention and services. John talked to me, took me to ASC, and introduced me to Vanessa and the HERS program (Honoring Everywoman's Right to Safety).

For seven months now, I've been attending HERS at ASC's Harlem office. The group has really saved me. I was headed into a depression. I wish the group was 5 days a week. The older women in the group who have been where I am now, in a shelter with young children, they tell me on a weekly basis that it's not always going to be this tough. Their encouragement, and the hope I feel from the group, gets me through my day. They motivate me, inspire me, and help me stay focused.

HERS has also been teaching me how to be more independent. Listening to other people's stories in the group really helps me. The HERS counselor reminds me that it can get better if I do my part.

Now my twins are enrolled in school and my 4-year old is in a head-start program. I'm also trying to quit smoking and the ASC HERS staff support me in sticking with it and help me with other healthy goals too.

This past June with the support of my amazing ASC counselor at HERS, I got tested for HIV and I'm negative. It was a very scary experience to get tested and I couldn't have done it without ASC. They really helped me through it.

Another goal of mine is going back to school and getting an education so I can find a good job. However, with four kids it's difficult. I've applied for two positions and I'm waiting to hear back. And hoping.

Photo: David Nager/ASCNYC

"We rode in 91-degree heat, through torrential rain, and a tornado."

So says Marty Rosen, ride director for the Empire State AIDS Ride, which raised over $200,000 for AIDS research and services in August. More than 50 courageous New Yorkers participated in the ride, a 560 mile, 7-day bicycle journey from Niagara Falls to New York City.

Despite the rough conditions, "everyone remained safe, healthy and in great spirits," Rosen says. "Neither the recession nor the weather could stop this amazing group from raising more than $200,000 for AIDS research and services and having a blast on and off their bikes."

ASC is the ride's newest beneficiary. "We're proud to support the important services that ASC provides," Rosen says. " I've visited many times, and am always impressed by how many clients with HIV/AIDS have overcome poverty and drug abuse and gone on to help others through ASC's peer recovery education program."

Thank you to everyone involved with the Empire State AIDS Ride. ASC looks forward to working together on next year's ride!

ASC and the Nelson Mandela Foundation collaborated this summer on Mandela Day, which celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world, the ability to make an imprint. Watch the video about ASC featured on the Mandela Day website.

Senate Health Committee Chair Thomas K. Duane (D WFP, Manhattan)

With National HIV Testing Day approaching on June 27, consider this:

One in ten HIV+ women live in New York City. The Big Apple has three times the national average of people living with HIV/AIDS. And our city houses more AIDS cases than Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Washington DCcombined.

The bottom line is clear: The time to expand HIV testing and services is now.

With that in mind, ASC and other AIDS service organizations in New York have endorsed HIV testing legislation that will expand HIV testing, making it easier and more routine (links to ASC press release). "Far too many individuals learn of their HIV status concurrently with an AIDS diagnosis, and far too many persons are HIV infected and not aware of their status," said Sharen Duke, CEO of AIDS Service Center NYC.

"I am pleased that ASC is among the many diverse organizations working directly with New Yorkers infected with and affected by HIV, who recognize that this bill takes the best approach to increase testing, ensure early treatment for those who are HIV-positive and prevent new infections at this moment in the evolving epidemic," says Senator Thomas K. Duane, Health Committee Chair, and co-sponsor of the bill with Assemblyman Dick Gottfried.

National HIV Testing Day reminds us there's a long way to go to stop the epidemic. AIDS service agencies like ASC use multiple strategies to improve the care and treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS. ASC provides confidential rapid HIV testing, distributes free condoms, helps people with housing, and connects people to medical, mental health and drug treatment services.

Another of ASC's efforts to increase awareness and promote testing is our June 25 th fundraiser, Safer Sex in the City. This high-energy event promotes safer sex and well-being in the age of AIDS; Vivid Girl Savannah Samson is a co-host. "In my industry, everyone is comfortable saying that they've been tested. Unfortunately, in the rest of the world, this is something that still makes people uncomfortable," she says.

Other celebrities, including Cynthia Nixon, Pamela Anderson, Joy Behar, Margaret Cho, Flotilla DeBarge, Linda Eder, Ellie Krieger, Robert LaFosse, & Gloria Ruben have joined forces with ASC to bring the message of HIV prevention, testing, and treatment to all New Yorkers in need.

Photo: David Nager/ASCNYC

Dario : We met in 1996. I was visiting my stepbrother. Monique was the head of the household where he lived.

Monique : We became friends, then we became lovers.

D : We've helped each other through some tough times.

M : We've bugged out together. Good times, bad times.

D : Arguments, too.

M : But we're here now, together. He's 31 now. I'm 43.

D : I first got tested for HIV when I joined Daytop Village for drug treatment. It was mandatory to get tested. When I got the results, I was shocked. My t-cells were 7. My jaw hit the floor. I had tears in my eyes. I wasn't aware of all the risks I had been taking.

Daytop asked if I had any significant others I wanted to inform. I told them about Monique, so they arranged a meeting where I would tell her. So we did it. I had very strong feelings when I was looking into her eyes telling her.

M : I was shocked. I didn't understand. We'd been such tight friends for so long. I wanted to know how he got it, what was happening outside our relationship. But I knew he needed support. That was the most important thing. And I was going to give it to him.

D : What's scary is that if I hadn't been required to get tested at Daytop, I wouldn't have gotten tested.

M : Now, we just take it day by day.

D : After I found out, I didn't take care of myself. It wasn't clicking.

M : He'd been in and out of the hospital. He barely weighed 90 pounds.

D : A Columbia Presbyterian doctor referred me to ASC for case management. My ASC caseworker, Millie, came to the hospital. That meant a lot to us.

M : ASC is like our family.

D : We get tested together about every six months. We do it as a couple, the same way we do everything as a couple.

M : For other couples where one partner's positive and the other is negative, I'd tell them, If you love the person and have been with them, just keep talking through the emotions and expressions. Get all the feelings out.

D : There's where depression comes from, when you can't express your feelings.

M : Tell the person you love them and will be there no matter what else is happening in your life.

D : There are so many what-ifs in a relationship even when you don't have to deal with this. There are so many doubts.

M : You think about, "Am I getting it?" You just have to put your cards on the table. If that's what you're thinking, you've got to get it out there somehow.

D : It's been almost 14 years for us. Sometimes I wonder how we've done it. I've grown so much from being with her.

M : I just deal with it. My mother died of cancer. My father died of natural causes. I dealt with that too. God is with us. You never what what's going to happen. You just have to take it straight ahead.

D : I don't know how she's been so strong.

M : My strength comes from you.

Photo: David Nager/ASCNYC