What does June 27th mean to you?

Summertime brings forth images of beaches, barbeque, and HIV testing? This is the message that agencies are striving to convey as National HIV Testing Day draws nearer and nearer. In an apathetic AIDS world, we are regulated to constantly hearing that HIV is no longer truly an epidemic/pandemic, that it is something that is “easily manageable”; it is due to these very assumptions that June 27^th is such an important day for AIDS activists and service providers across the country.

I know that our calendar is full of “National Days,” January 31 is National Popcorn Day and Child Labor Day, March 1 is National Pig Day and Peanut Butter Lover's Day, and July 12 is National Pecan Pie Day; but the tone is truly serious on June 27^th, National HIV/AIDS Testing Day. In a country where there are approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS and where 1 out of 4 people are HIV positive but do not know it, the mission and work of National HIV/AIDS Testing Day (and days like it) takes on an especially dire significance.

It is imperative to be proactive in the fight against HIV/AIDS and education is our only tried and true weapon. Agencies who have applied to the Tony Cox Community Fund know and understand that marketing their services is key to getting people through the door and provided with prevention education and/or care. Without proper outreach, an agency’s services are not known to the very community that is in need of them. This reaches to the very core as to why the Tony Cox Community Fund is more important that ever before.

Providing unrestricted marketing funds is completely unheard of (I mean come on, when was the last time your department of health said here is some money, do whatever marketing you want), but that is exactly what TCCF does!! Through the use of these unrestricted marketing funds, agencies produce and market public education campaigns that promote their services and/or a fundraising event. These HIV/AIDS fundraising events usually collect money for the agency while also providing free HIV/AIDS testing, education, and outreach to the community. This double pronged approach to community service provides the perfect opportunity for ASOs to fundraise while continuing to provide direct services to community members in need.

National HIV/Testing Day, National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, World AIDS Day, and other “National Days” are the perfect time to shine a spotlight on educating the public that HIV is still out there, that it still does not discriminate in who it infects, and that, at the current time, education is our only vaccine. Integrate these days into your outreach/community events and make them an important part of your yearly calendar, because if you don’t, June 27^th will lose its’ meaning and become just another dress down Friday.