The Whitman-Walker Health Walk & 5K to End HIV Turns 40
For forty years, Whitman-Walker Health has brought together walkers, runners, advocates, and patients for the annual Walk to End HIV. This year, to celebrate their 40th year, the Whitman-Walker team is reimagining the event to ensure it reflects the urgent need for continued investment in HIV prevention, treatment, research, and advocacy. The Walk & 5K to End HIV is being held in Anacostia Park Roller Skating Pavilion on September 19.
40 Years of Walking. 40 Years of Strength. One Unstoppable Community.
Courtesy of Whitman-Walker Health
“The Walk & 5K to End HIV is rooted in early activist efforts to push for policy changes and resource allocation to the communities that were most impacted by the epidemic,” the Whitman-Walker team told us. “40 years ago, Whitman-Walker started AIDSWALK as a community response to a crisis. When we renamed it to The Walk to End HIV, we built upon the care, research and advocacy that helped lead to significant advancements in HIV prevention that made ending new diagnosis within our reach. Now, with severe shifts in federal funding, the promise to end HIV lies again within our unstoppable community response.”
With recent advancements in HIV treatment, people living with HIV can live long, healthy lives, and medications like PrEP have made the disease much more preventable, but that does not mean the work is over.
For many years, the annual event has been held in downtown Washington, DC, attracting hundreds of supporters. However, recognizing the shifting geography of HIV in Washington and the clinic’s recent expansion with the Max Robinson Center in Congress Heights, the group moved the event to Anacostia Park.
The Walk & 5K is one of Whitman-Walker’s largest fundraising events each year, with the money raised supporting lifesaving services for people living with or at risk for HIV and to fund HIV prevention outreach, treatment programs, and research. Every registered runner, fundraiser, and donation contributes to the infrastructure that allows Whitman-Walker Health to provide care to more than 20,000 patients each year across all eight DC wards.
When it comes to the event itself, Lisa Amore, Senior Director of Communications for Whitman-Walker, said, “The Walk & 5K to End HIV is ultimately about people—not pace. Showing up at Anacostia Park is an opportunity to remember the people we have lost, celebrate people living with HIV, stand against stigma, and invest in the communities that continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV. For us, the event is both a look backward and a look forward: honoring the history that brought us here while bringing the fight to end HIV directly into communities that must be part of the solution.”
This year’s event will take place Saturday, September 19 at Anacostia Park Roller Skating Pavilion, with the 5K beginning at 8:45 a.m. and the Walk at 8:50 a.m., followed by a stage program, refreshments, and entertainment. Attendees can get to the race by Metro via the Anacostia Metro stop on the Green line. Walk to the Kiss and Ride parking lot and take the free Anacostia BID shuttle. Roads into the park will close to traffic at 8:30 and reopen at 9:30 am.
“The 40th anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate the history of the Walk while reimagining what the next 40 years can look like,” Amore said. “We want the 40th Walk to connect generations: the people who remember the earliest AIDS walks, the ACT UP movement, and those who lived through the height of the epidemic. This year’s event invites both people who have benefited from the incredible advances in HIV treatment and prevention, and a new generation that can help carry the work forward.”
Register:www.walktoendHIV.org to show up for our community and start toward your own fundraising goals.
Donate: If you can’t be there in person, you can donate here:https://bit.ly/GiveWWteam
Sign up & take action:www.walktoendHIV.org