Photo credits: Caroline Watson, Yamini Oseguera-Bhatnagar, Susan Berston, and Danny Ransom
On July 19, 2015, Team HIVE gathered at Sharon Meadow in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park along with about 20,000 other people for the 2015 AIDS Walk. At the park that day were Yamini Oseguera-Bhatnagar, Taft Weber-Kilpack, Samuel Berston, Susan Berston, Sidney Hirschman, and me (Caroline Watson). Taft, Sam, and Sidney are all students at Lick Wilmerding High School. Our Team HIVE Virtual Walkers were Deborah Cohan, Rebecca Schwartz, Jesus Gaeta, Shannon Weber, and Heather Boerner. Our top fundraisers were myself, Yamini, Sam, Jesus, and Taft. In total, we raised $2040 for HIVE. Special thanks to Sam for volunteering to be the money counter on behalf of HIVE!
In the Star Walker tent, Taft, Sam, and Sidney had a mini photoshoot with Supervisor Scott Wiener:
At around 9:45am, the opening ceremony began. I went onstage as the “A” in “Because” (see the featured image, above), and said,
My name is Caroline Watson with HIVE: a hub of positive reproductive & sexual health. Because you walk, women living with HIV will be linked with preconception & prenatal care and no babies have been born with HIV in San Francisco in over a decade. And PleasePrEPMe, the California PrEP Provider Directory, will continue to grow.
It was a broiling hot day, unheard of in AIDS Walk history (usually it’s foggy or raining). We set out around 10:30am, with babies in strollers and dogs on leashes. We drank lots of water and consumed the many treats (Lara Bars, boxed water, and popsicles) provided along the way in abundance. Finally, after several hours of great conversation and plenty of sweat, we made it to the end.
I had decided to wear my “People Living with HIV Are…” shirt that Shannon Weber brought me from the International AIDS Conference last year. I customized it using a book I borrowed from Taft (who is an amazing seamstress and blogger), and had my teammates and people from other organizations write on the back.
Check it out:
