Student World AIDS Day to light up town

Five people die of AIDS every minute around the world, according to www.worldaidsday.org.\nTo increase public knowledge of the global crisis by sharing these types of facts, the National Institutes of Health will recognize Thursday, Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day. Just as in years past, the IU Student Global AIDS Campaign is doing its part this week to create awareness regarding the disease among both the IU and Bloomington communities.\n"AIDS is not just something that happens in Africa or some crazy country far away," said SGAC co-director and senior Kathryn Mullen. "It affects our community as well."\nMullen said a 2002 count found 150 Monroe County residents had AIDS.\nAt 5:30 p.m. Thursday evening, 200 luminaries will be lit around the Sample Gates, each one representing 15,500 people who died of AIDS in 2004. This is SGAC's primary event in honor of World AIDS Day.\n"It's just kind of to promote awareness. It's really a nice visual statement to see all the luminaries at night," said sophomore SGAC member Anna Kostrzewsky. "It's a good time for reflection."\nFollowing the luminary ceremony will be a speech by IU graduate and AIDS activist Michael McColly at 7 p.m. in Ballantine Hall Room 109. He will address issues involving the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the international community. Mullen said McColly will be an effective speaker.\n"He's traveled all over the world," she said. "He's done a lot of AIDS activism everywhere. I can't think of a place he hasn't been that's affected by AIDS."\nKostrzewsky said about 50 people came to the luminary ceremony last year.\n"It's usually a smaller event just because the people who come have personal reasons for coming," she said. "We try not to push people to come."\nNonetheless, Mullen encourages students to attend primarily to "get an idea of what's going on globally."\n"If you live in McNutt or Read why wouldn't you walk over and see what it's about?" she said. "I've had people come to the ceremony and say they've never realized what (AIDS) was or that it's going on in the community."\nIn addition to these SGAC-hosted events, a kick-off event to World AIDS Day will be held at 6:30 p.m. this evening at the Fountain Square Ballroom, 101 W. Kirkwood Ave. The event, which will feature music by the Second Baptist Church Choir, as well as the Jacobs School of Music, is free and open to the public.\nMoreover, at noon Thursday, Bloomington will play host to Black Curtain, a theater troupe dedicated to informing the public on social issues. This will take place on the courthouse steps, and Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan will read the World AIDS Day proclamation.\nStudents can also be tested for HIV for free from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday at Positive Link, the HIV/AIDS services branch of Bloomington Hospital, located at 333 E. Miller Drive.\nMullen said considering AIDS by attending these events has a deep meaning, especially amid the holiday season.\n"Hopefully people begin to realize that Christmas isn't just about presents and all that. It's about realizing that there are people in the world that are suffering," she said.\nFor more information on local World AIDS Day events, contact Mullen at kemullen@indiana.edu.