This year, AIDS Awareness Week spans from November 24th and concludes with World AIDS Day on December 1st.  This year HIV Edmonton is making their fundraising initiatives both fun and memorable.

"We are going into our third year of a partnership with Starbucks called the Celebrity Barista Campaign [where] we partner with various media outlets throughout the city, and they send personalities to make lattes and such for customers, and chat up World AIDS Day," explains Joyce LaBriola, a consultant for HIV Edmonton. "They get to steam milk and play with whipped cream. It’s pretty cool."

And related to that effort is their Red Ribbon Brigade. Joyce explains that, "...[HIV Edmonton] sends red ribbons to every Starbucks in the city (there are currently 55) and we sell the red ribbons for donations: you can have a red ribbon for a penny, or you can have a red ribbon for a twenty." And the collection goes to HIV Edmonton.

Meanwhile in Calgary, "We wanted to put a real positive spin on [Calgary’s events], said Simonne LeBlanc of AIDS Calgary, Medicine Hat & Bow Valley. "We also wanted to recognize that it’s the 30th anniversary of the first diagnosis of HIV/Aids in North America, and [it’s global effects]. So we’re having this huge open house event where we are going to have foods from around the world and activities from around the world."

"We are running a movie that night called One Blood. It is youth from Ottawa’s African-Caribbean community talking and meeting with youth from Jamaica. They’re talking about the two countries, and HIV.... It’s really interesting, and it gets into rap music, and it’s really upbeat."

Both the Edmonton and Calgary HIV/AIDS centres are interested in promoting a more positive outlook for its clients and their supporters. Though the devastation of HIV/AIDS related illness continues, the progress made in the last 30 years needs to be recognized at the same time as it is put into perspective. Simonne mentions that, "At the open house we will also have a celebratory kind of memorial, recognizing some of the clients we lost this year. We always recognize them. Rather than having a sombre [memorial], we decided to do one that allows people to celebrate the wonderfulness and the gifts that those individuals brought into the world."

"The other big thing that is happening that night is our chief coordinator will have a panel, and they’ll be showing the movie We Were Here. It’s pretty sombre, but it has some interesting points in it. And then they’ll discuss it. They did something like this last year, and it was very well received, with lots and lots of discussion."

Joyce of HIV Edmonton notes that, "we have an event that’s called Angels Amongst Us, which is an intimate affair honouring our positive mentors... HIV Edmonton just celebrated their 25th anniversary last year, and we re-engaged a lot of our supporters and long-time survivors. This is a continuation of that campaign, providing an opportunity for people to get together, light a candle, talk and share stories of their struggles. [The centre] is inviting the public to come and listen to stories of HIV advocates in the city, and the doors will open at 6:30."

We asked Simone when is the time to remember and celebrate people who succumbed to HIV/AIDS many years ago, not necessarily just last year.

"People come to [World AIDS Day events] and recognize those they’ve lost over a period of time. And we do also provide a more memorial-like candle vigil, not on that day. [At the celebratory memorial] we’ll be focussing on what a gift this person was, but we know that some people need to grieve in a different way, so on a separate day we’ll be providing the more restrained vigil."

What would make these AIDS service organizations happiest about how things go on December 1st this year? They agreed that It would be great if the media and general community understood that some phenomenal things have happened during the last 30 years, "that has made getting HIV so much different than what it used to be," says Simonne. "It used to be a horrible-death sentence, and now with all the advantages of new drugs, new services and so on, there’s lots to be celebrating."

"Of course in Alberta the numbers overall of new diagnoses went down in 2010 from 213 to 192, and it went down the year before. Still, the largest population of that 192 are MSM [Men having Sex with Men], and the fastest increasing population between last year and this year is aboriginal heterosexual women: they’re the next biggest group...and they’re very closely followed by heterosexual African/Caribbean men."

But there is still much work to be done.

"It’s still here; it’s part of Canada; it’s not going to go away. [While the US may have higher rates than Canada], they are ahead of us in some ways, because they have a whole new program set by the federal government that’s looking at housing. We know that once an individual is properly housed, there’s far less chance of them getting HIV/AIDS [because of less risky behavior, better access to health care, etc]. Although a lot has happened, it’s still a devastating disease, and the medicine is hard on the body: we’re only starting to find out what a lifetime of anti-retroviral drugs does to you."