Garden Party Wrap-up
Well, it’s official. One of the hottest fundraisers in the Atlanta LGBTQ community took place this past weekend, and proved to be a huge success! This past Sunday, October 4th, the Health Initiative hosted its 14th Annual Fall Garden Party Fundraiser at midtown Atlanta’s quintessential community favorite – Einstein’s, to rave reviews and a greatly-needed financial success.
For this year’s event, the Health Initiative took over the entire Einstein’s restaurant and patio, and packed the house. As guests arrived at the party, they were greeted by live music out on the patio by Poetic Justice. Once they got inside, they experienced a variety of exciting things to do. Let’s start with the food and drink – the wraparound bar was staffed by Einstein’s amazing bartenders who were more than happy to pour each guest’s favorite liquid refreshment. Then there was the food – from the passed hors doeuvres circulating throughout, to the over-the-top buffet, if guests arrived hungry to the party, they were able to leave contently sated. A huge thank you to Einstein’s for so generously hosting us for the big day!
One of the big financial successes of the day was the Silent Auction. We would like to thank the Silent Auction coordinators, Kristy Gibson and Lisa Getzinger, and their entire team, for a job well done! We had a wide selection of wonderful items donated by generous Health Initiative supporters, and can’t thank the donors enough for their support. One of the biggest ticket items of the day was the Olivia Halloween Caribbean Cruise donated by sponsor, Olivia. That ticket item was sold in advance in a special promotion on our website and brought in $2,000 for the Health Initiative. Thanks Olivia!
More Garden Party Fun
And who can forget the raffle? We actually were able to give away two scooters in this year’s raffle, thanks to a great deal from the kind folks over at Atlanta Motorcycles and Repair. It was fun to watch hopeful raffle ticket buyers stroll by the display scooters, sit on them and take pictures, anxiously awaiting the drawings.
The most poignant moment of the event came when Health Initiative Executive Director, Linda Ellis, awarded the Healing Angel Award to our allies, Center for Black Women’s Wellness (CBWW). The Award was graciously accepted by CBWW CEO, Jemea Dorsey, who eloquently spoke on the success of the relationship between our organizations. The Health Initiative is proud to work together with such an amazing organization as CBWW.
The event program also included Decatur Women’s Sports League’s Founder, Anne “Sarge” Barr, presenting a check to the Health Initiative for $7,000! Thank you Anne and all of her team for the continual unrelenting support of our Lesbian Health Fund. Another amazingly generous donation was provided by Pam Liss-Burdette on behalf of the Lloyd E. Russell Foundation. Pam and her organization continue to be the unsung heroes of not only the Health Initiative, but also many other under-funded LGBTQ organizations.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we have a huge list of thank you’s. Words cannot express how much you all mean to the life of this organization. We cannot do this with out any and all of you in this with us – our gratitude is immeasurable.
Big, huge thank you’s to our Host Committee and Sponsors. Your support enables us to get this event off of the ground every year. To our Garden Party volunteers, including our volunteer coordinator, Brigid, you all make this event function – thank you for your time. To our website guru, Jason, you make it all function and look good. And lastly, to our event planner – the girls at Q&A Events, thanks for making it a smooth ride.
To all of those who attended the party, we appreciate you and are already looking forward to seeing you at the 15th annual Garden Party in the Fall of 2010!
Health Fair To Go 2
Join the Atlanta Lesbian Health Initiative and Piedmont Hospital on Saturday, October 24th, 12:00--4:00 p.m. for a day of fun and free health screenings, including:
- Body Mass Index
- Blood Pressure
- Glucose
- Cholesterol
- Breast Health**
- HIV
**Anyone who would like to receive a free clinical breast exam must call 404-688-2524 in advance to make a reservation.
The Health Fair to Go 2 will be held at the Health Initiative/Georgia Equality Offices at 1530 DeKalb Avenue NE, Suite A, Atlanta, Georgia 30307
Special thanks to our sponsors, Emory University, the Hope Clinic of the Emory Vaccine Center, and Piedmont Hospital.
Encouraging News in the Quest for an HIV vaccine
In the midst of all the recent attention deservedly given to the swine flu vaccine, we were recently reminded of another much-needed vaccine. We heard good news out of Thailand about HIV vaccine research. The results of a test of an HIV vaccine regimen were reported, showing that the vaccine had some effectiveness at reducing HIV infection. In the largest HIV vaccine trial ever conducted, participants who received the vaccine had a statistically significant 31% reduction in new HIV infections, relative to participants who received placebo shots.
This is very encouraging and presents an opportunity to do more research to understand how this vaccine protected people from catching HIV. Vaccine development is a long-term process; it took almost 50 years to develop the polio vaccine. The search for an HIV vaccine is particularly challenging and has already gone on for 25 years. With most infectious diseases, some people are able to fight the infection with their own immune systems, allowing researchers to design vaccines that mimic the immune system. In the case of HIV, the human immune system never totally removes HIV from the body, so researchers are trying to find a way to do what the human body cannot do. Each study provides new information about the immune system, and the new Thai study data present avenues to do more research and design even more fully protective future HIV vaccines.
HIV vaccine research is progressing around the world, not only in Thailand, but here in Atlanta, where HIV vaccine clinical trials and laboratory studies are under way at the Hope Clinic and the Emory Vaccine Center. In recent months, Emory’s Hope Clinic has initiated three new studies designed to examine safety and tolerability of new HIV vaccines and to explore the possibility that a vaccine regimen could reduce the amount of HIV in the blood (viral load) of people who become infected with HIV after vaccination. Men and women ages 18 to 45 are encouraged to contact us to learn about participation.
There is an opportunity for anyone to be involved in HIV vaccine research. One option is to become a participant in a study. Another is to be a vocal supporter of the research in the community. AIDS continues to be a major public health issue, with a person in the United States being newly infected every 9-1/2 minutes. Contact us at 877-424-HOPE (4673) or www.hopeclinic.emory.edu. We urge you to get involved! Together, we will find an effective HIV vaccine.
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