Vivent Health Sunsets AIDS Walk, Partners with PrideFest for Memorial Celebration

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After over three decades, Vivent Health (formerly AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin) sunsets its historic community fundraising event, AIDS Walk Wisconsin. In announcing the AIDS Walk’s end, Margaret Lidstone, Vivent Health Chief Development Officer, recognized the AIDS Walk’s rich and important history in Wisconsin both as a significant fundraising event but also as a community platform to raise awareness and to remember those who were lost. 

However, Lidstone also cited the present-day realities, stating “while fundraising has always been most impactful when it is personal, with the past several years of no events due to the pandemic, the need for personal connection with donors has accelerated. Increasingly, that’s not possible through special events. The environment for fundraising has changed and there are other vehicles to reach our donors.” 

Lidstone also noted the logistics and costs of putting on a major event both for participants and organizers were also considerations when the decision to end the AIDS Walk was made. “Fees made it difficult for people to participate and created a barrier. Fees for entertainers and costs in general were also significant,” Lipstone said. 

Something New

While the fundraising aspect of the AIDS Walk may be over, its commemorative aspect will continue. In fact, in collaboration with Milwaukee Pride, Inc, the first successor event of its kind takes place at PrideFest 2023 on Saturday evening, June 3.  It marks the beginning of a new tradition that, like the AIDS Walk, will provide a platform for the community to come together and honor the people lost as well as those who have supported the cause over the decades. 

“The AIDS Walk was so many things to so many who walked in honor of a relative, friend, or coworker they lost. The goal of PrideFest-Vivient Health main stage event is to be a vigil of commemoration. A video will tell the story of the community coming together, honoring people who were victims of the AIDS pandemic. Prior to the vigil, people will be able to offer tributes via codes entered at Vivent stations throughout PrideFest grounds to create a collage to share,” Lidstone said. 

 In fact, while the memorial vigil continues that commemorative purpose of the AIDS Walk, it also revives a tradition that was established at the earliest PrideFest when a candlelight ceremony of remembrance was held at Juneau Park. Now combined, both histories of PrideFest and the AIDS Walk serve to bring the community together. The vigil concludes with the PrideFest fireworks that will now have added meaning and symbolism.  

Lipstone expects future community memorial events will follow and be held on other platforms where Vivent Health can engage with multiple communities where HIV has deeply impacted them.

Sad Moment or Milestone?

The end of the AIDS Walk era may well be a sad moment for those who participated in some, or even all, of the events over the decades. It was our way of doing something when all seemed hopeless. However, the end of the Walk also signals progress in the battle against HIV/AIDS. The impact of that critical response to the crisis is recorded in its statistics. Since the first AIDS Walk in 1990, in an “all-hands-on-deck” community response, Wisconsin mustered 135,000 walkers and volunteers who raised nearly $14 million. Notable supporters over the years include MillerLite, The Brewers Community Foundation and Ryan Braun, Northwestern Mutual and Baird employee groups, Taylor’s in downtown Milwaukee (who held an annual art auction in support of the Walk) and many more. 

Perhaps more noteworthy are the committed individuals, motivated by the urgency of the cause and their personal compassion, who created AIDS Walk teams, that, in friendly but obsessively driven competition, vied for recognition as top fundraisers. They would succeed in raising thousands upon thousands of dollars each and every year. 

Significantly, the end of the AIDS Walk also marks a milestone in HIV treatment and care. Today life expectancy is no longer impacted as long as compliance with antiretroviral therapy is maintained. Pre-exposure prophylactic care is universally available and with that, the rate of new HIV infection continues to decline. Mortality directly attributable to HIV infection is practically unknown.  

For many of us, the grass roots clarion response that began decades makes up much of our past. We now are fortunate to live in a different time when we can separate the commemoration from rigors of fundraising. We can now focus on our memories of our departed.  See you at PrideFest on Saturday night.