PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Thousands of people took part in Philadelphia's 36th annual AIDS Walk Sunday morning.
AIDS Walk Philly starts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and stretches down Martin Luther King and Kelly drives. The event's goal is to raise money and awareness for many of the 18,000 Philadelphians living with HIV.
One in five people living with HIV are either homeless or housing insecure, according to Robb Reichard, executive director of AIDS Fund Philly.
"Our mission is to support the most vulnerable people living with HIV, when a financial crisis could turn into a health crisis. We do small emergency grants that help put people in housing," Reichard told KYW Newsradio.
"We can help people live a long and healthy life with medications, but they need all those wraparound services in order to maintain their health."
The day featured the reading of names of people who died from AIDS, a chance to see part of the AIDS Quilt, as well as information on HIV and AIDS resources, as well as prevention.
Related
For the last 36 years, Pat Lavelle has taken part in the walk. "What I'm in charge of is the AIDS Memorial Quilt display," she said. "It was started in 1987. It is a collection of quilt panels that were made by people mourning the loss of loved ones to AIDS."
The event made for a deeply personal experience for Lavelle. "In my case, my brother and his husband died in 1996 and another brother-in-law died about five years after that," she shared.
People viewing the quilt panels on display could see Lavelle's personal message she sewed for her brothers.
"We collected their neckties and we made half a sunburst on one quilt and the other half of the sunburst on the other quilt and we put their names and their dates," she said.