AIDS Help Shows Their Pride

AIDS Help Shows Their Pride

AIDS Help will be demonstrating pride in achievement during the week of June 5-12, providing important outreach while shifting into the campaign to bolster participation in The SMART Ride 14.

On Thursday night, June 8th, 2015 Fantasy Fest Queen Jodyrae Campbell will present ‘Real Men Do Drag’, where burly meets curly and boots are traded for bras.

The competition, from 6 – 8 p.m. at AQUA nightclub, 711 Duval, will be hosted by Jessica T. Deveraux and emceed by Laurie Thibaud.

“I won’t promise pretty and I can’t guarantee poise,” commented Scott Pridgen, Executive Director of AIDS Help, “but I can assure attendees of plus-sized laughter.”

Tips and other proceeds will equally assist the local Mile Markers team for The SMART Ride 14 and the other Florida agencies participating in TSR: AIDS Help, Pridelines, Broward House, Children’s Diagnostic and Treatment Center, Metro Wellness and Community Centers, Miracle of Love, Inc. and Compass Community Center.

“We work handlebar-to-handlebar with TSR management and the other ASOs to remind this state that there is still neither vaccine or cure for HIV and AIDS,” said Pridgen.

Entry at the door is a suggested $10 donation.

At the Key West PRIDE Street Fair Saturday, June 10th, the familiar AIDS Help tent, with safe sex condom packets and other sexual wellness literature,  will be joined alongside by the canvas of The SMART Ride from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Mile Markers’ team riders past and present will be on-hand to discuss the  mid-November 165-mile journey from Miami to Key West, enlisting not just riders, but crew and supporters.

At both events, registrants will be entered in a drawing for a lightweight road bike.

For more general information about The SMART Ride 14, access www.TheSMARTRide.org. Locally, the Mile Markers can be found on FACEBOOK at http://tinyurl.com/n46jt3r; Team Captain Karen Frank-Noll can be messaged from there.

“Outreach isn’t accomplished within a building, behind a desk, doing data entry. Our Agency always seeks collaboration. It raises the energy level while we broaden our message, which is a goal of 0 new HIV-infections in Monroe County,” stated Pridgen.

Toward that, the week will begin with free HIV-testing at the Anchors Away Club, 404 Virginia, from 10:30 AM – 1:30 PM. In 20 minutes, individuals can find out their HIV-status. Whatever the results, AIDS Help Prevention Specialists are on-hand to answer questions and offer suggestions on navigating hook-ups, sexual disclosure and stigma.

“Community partnership, sharing resources and reaching new demographics is our charge for 2017…engaging everyone within our grasp that HIV and AIDS may be manageable, but they still need managed,” Pridgen noted.

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