Instead of going to a beach and partying, students are participating in increasing numbers in Alternative Spring Break service projects across the country. This year, students from Rice University, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and the University of Oregon came separately to San Francisco to volunteer with several non-profits, including the National AIDS Memorial Grove. At the Grove, led by gardener Ray Goodenough and longtime volunteer Matt Polsdorf, these students removed several truckloads of brush and produced five new terraces on the Grove’s southern slope for planting later this year.

Although most of the students were not even born at the time the Grove was founded, their service learning experience included an emotional verbal history of AIDS and of the Grove from Executive Director John Cunningham. Serendipitously, Gregg Cassin, who pioneered the Alternative Spring Break program at Boston College some 20 years ago, was present and also shared stories with the students.

Jose Garcia (right), UNLV Alternative Spring Break Program Coordinator

University of Oregon seniors Tony Minaglia and Cassie Soucy led another group of students who focused on the intersection of health and poverty as expressed in concerns with food, housing, and health care. This diverse group of social justice activists chose the Alternative Spring Break experience to help inform their academic endeavors and guide future life choices. During the week they spent in San Francisco, they visited Glide Memorial Church and St. Anthony Foundation’s Family Services, and studied harm reduction programs.

Both student groups joined the March for Marriage Equality on March 27, 2013-the day before their service learning projects in the Grove. Sharing in the Circle of Friends after working together, both groups recalled the excitement of being with thousands of people marching for social change. One student said that experiencing the March For Marriage Equality, followed by a visit to the Grove, resulted in a shift from the religious perspective on homosexuality that he had been raised to understand. Another student expressed a deepening understanding of her grandmother who has lived with the virus since before the granddaughter was born. Another student spoke about how being where the AIDS epidemic and early grassroots response happened-and with people who were there-made the impact of AIDS feel “real” and informed his knowledge of the disease.

Students from University of Las Vegas and University of Oregon at Circle Time

]]> http://www.aidsmemorial.org/uncategorized/students-bring-service-and-bold-idealism/feed 0 http://www.aidsmemorial.org/events/spring-appeal?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spring-appeal http://www.aidsmemorial.org/events/spring-appeal#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:28:18 +0000 Steve http://www.aidsmemorial.org/?p=3355 “Nothing is so beautiful as spring”

                                                                                                                  –Gerard Manley Hopkins

Dear Friends of the Grove,

To be sure, no single day of the year passes without some flower’s blossom offering up a colorful contrast to the canvas of greens that is the National AIDS Memorial Grove. But spring offers the piéce de resistance when thousands of buds open, inhaling with abandon a new cycle of life. Right now, the Grove offers a carpet of rich earth-sprung colors: waning magnolias and tea trees, emerging echium, dogwood, rhododendrons and lavender. All this beauty would not be possible without your financial support. Thank you.

The Grove exists as an award-winning landscape because of the countless hours that hundreds of volunteers have devoted to it. However, volunteers cannot do the job on their own; we also need your continued financial support. It is your support that allows those who tend the Grove to respect its storied past, while continuing to enhance this place of healing, hope, and remembrance. With your support, here is a sample of projects your investment will help to complete this year:

• Re-plant the area surrounding the recently installed Nancy Pelosi Walkway, and add a new brochure kiosk.
• Repair and resurface the two paths that border the meadow, and restore the meadow lawn with much needed soil aeration, underground drainage paths, and replanting.
• Plant low native species to breathe new life into the understory of the South Portal entrance, and explore the installation of a boardwalk to protect the shallow root system in the Redwood Grove.

During the spring, summer and fall, our precious volunteers will contribute more than 6,000 hours to help us complete these projects and to maintain the Grove as a magnificent American memorial, a living memorial that in its own way breathes oxygen into the planetary atmosphere that begs for more.

The Grove receives no government funding for its ongoing operations, but relies solely upon our volunteers and the sustained generosity of individuals like you. I ask you to again support the National AIDS Memorial Grove to help us continue to transform both landscape and lives. Planting trees, digging weeds, and spreading mulch do more than beautify this national treasure; these small acts do something much larger – they transform lives and sustain community.

I look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year.

Sincerely,

John B. Cunningham

Executive Director

P.S. If you haven’t visited the Grove yet this spring, now is the time!

Blue Shield of California Team (from left to right):
Sophia Roth, Eva Roth, Jennifer Murphy, Bill Hill, Marigel Gaspar and Gregg Sueyoshi

On the third Saturday of each month from March through October, volunteers help with the work of creating and maintaining the Grove. Individuals and groups of volunteers participate in gardening activities: clearing weeds and debris, mulching and hauling topsoil, planting new trees and shrubs, and other related activities within the Grove. Most volunteers find Community Volunteer Workdays to be a rewarding experience, even though you may have sore muscles at the end of the day! Many first-time volunteers become on-going participants.

2013 Community Volunteer Workdays

• March 16
• April 20
• May 18
• June 15
• July 20
• August 17
• September 21
• October 19

The hours of Community Volunteer Workdays are from 9:00 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. It is important to arrive on time, as the Program Manager explains the day’s work plan promptly at 9:00 a.m. Please arrive at 8:30 am for registration. Coffee and bagels are provided first thing in the morning. At noon we stop work and gather for a circle ceremony where announcements are read, the group observes a moment of silence for those we have lost, acknowledges the sponsors of the day, and may plant a memorial tree as a group. The Grove’s generous in-kind donors provide coffee, cold drinks (soda and water), and bagels/pastries at the start of the day. We also provide lunch to all volunteers at 12:30 p.m.

Gloves and tools are provided, although many volunteers bring their own gloves. We suggest that you wear sturdy shoes and bring sunscreen, insect repellent, and a hat or cap. No open toe shoes will be permitted. Please wear sturdy clothing (jeans and long-sleeved shirts are suggested) as we have discovered a few areas where poison oak is growing. Please advise your group of this fact; additionally, all volunteers are briefed on how to avoid coming into contact with the plant. All participants under the age of 18 must have a consent form signed by a parent/guardian prior to working at the Grove.  You may download our standard Release Form here to complete and sign ahead of time, or they will be available on-site on the morning of the Community Volunteer Workday.

Please refer to our general brochure or the “Getting to The Grove” link on the home page of our website for written directions to the Grove, and public transportation information (you may want to make copies for your group to distribute prior to the Community Volunteer Workday).

Workday Sponsors

Workday sponsors provide an important source of revenue necessary to sustain the Community Volunteer Workday program. Community Volunteer Workday sponsorships, which help to offset associated costs, range from $100 to $1,000. Honor a loved one, or have your company/group name presented at “Circle Time.” Call the office for details at (415)765-0497. Any groups of 3 or larger must contact the Grove at least three weeks in advance of a scheduled Community Volunteer Workday in order to confirm available space. You may send an email in the form below, or call our offices at (415)765-0497.

If there are questionable weather conditions, call the NAMG office at by 7:30 a.m. on your scheduled Community Volunteer Workday for an official update based on current weather conditions. We look forward to a very productive and inspiring day.

Contact The Grove:

[contact-form-7]

Scott Hafner & Bill Glenn

If you ask Scott Hafner to define who his heroes are, he would tell you that they are “…the people who do great work, generously, selflessly, quietly, in the shadows…” while his husband, Bill Glenn, would add that those he found heroic are those who try to “…further the cause of justice and to alleviate the suffering of the poor.”  Without realizing it, both have done an amazing job of defining exactly what it is about each other, both individually and as a couple, that makes them such extraordinary men.

And it is because they are such extraordinary men who have worked generously and selflessly that makes them so deserving of being recognized for their leadership, service and philanthropy at the 2012 Light In The Grove event of the National AIDS Memorial Grove.

The accomplishments of these two men over the past three decades is nothing short of astonishing. Currently, Bill is a psychotherapist and spiritual director in private practice in San Francisco and Sonoma County.  In addition to that “…I do volunteer work at San Quentin state penitentiary as a part of Insight Out.  I serve on the board of the Morris K. Stulsaft Foundation, which funds organizations that provides services for underprivileged youth(0-24) in the five county Bay Area.”

Scott (and his brother) are the managing partners of their family’s small vineyard and winery in Alexander Valley. “We farm 100 acres of grapes, making 15,000 cases of wine each year and provide the livelihood for 14 families, most of whom have worked with us for over 20 years.”

Over the past three decades, Bill has served on numerous boards of directors , including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (where he was President of the Board), 18th Street Services and the ACLU Gay Rights.  Glenn also was the Executive Director of Continuum for seven years.

Scott equally has served on numerous boards of directors, including the AIDS Project Contra County (where he was President of the Board) and the Horizons Foundation (where he was also President of the Board).  Hafner also serves on the Board of Trustees of Connecticut College and is the only only out member of the Board.

When talking to them about what compelled them (and continues to compel them) to become involved in efforts in the AIDS community one cannot escape how their deeply-rooted faith permeates their work.   Of particular note is the fact that both men are founding members  of the Center for Gays and Lesbians in Ministry and Religion at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley.

Explaining what drew him to becoming involved in the HIV/AIDS struggle, Bill commented “…it felt incumbent upon me to serve to the maximum of my ability a community that I love, one that held for me so much that I hold dear–the freedom to become a human being, to love with abandon, to assist in the task of offering hope to those caught in all sorts of binds around human sexuality, a community so suddenly beleaguered.”

For Scott, he simply remarks “I became involved in the AIDS community….as a way to take care of friends.”  Scott recalls that “when we first moved to Santa Rosa I worked with Food for Thought, standing outside of the local supermarket asking for food donations for the food bank.”

Bill’s involvement in the Grove dates back to “an early planning meeting at Isabel Wade’s house,” where he was invited because “I had been raising some money at SFAF, and Alice and Isabel were trying to understand the funding landscape.”  Additionally, Bill was one of the dignitaries who dedicated the South Portal at the 1995 World AIDS Day and gave the keynote at the World AIDS Day Observance in 2004 in the Grove.

Bill and Scott are quick to add “…we have our names in the Circle (of Friends), and are great supporters of John Cunningham, Margarita Gandia and Vivian Stevenson, Susan Sachs and so many other board members, past and present.”

When asked how they would describe each other, Scott says of Bill that “…he does his work more than anyone else I know. People love him, with good reason. I am forever grateful that we’re together.”  Bill describes Scott as his  “…deeply generous, compassionate, warm, funny, wise husband.”  Bill and Scott met 31 years ago, while running in the Berkeley Hills and have been together ever since.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Rain or shine, rogram begins at noon sharp, and includes:

• Bestowing of the National Leadership Recognition & Local Unsung Hero Awards
• Musical Performance by The Festival Bells
• Presentation of Young Leaders Scholarship Program Awards
• Reading of Names

The Observance and light lunch that follows are free and open to the public.

This year, the National AIDS Memorial Honors Local Unsung Hero, Gina Gatta

In her typical fashion, even when talking about being honored as the National AIDS Memorial Grove’s 2012 World AIDS Day “Local Unsung Hero,” Gina Gatta tries to deflect the conversation away from her.  Quietly, consistently, often behind the scenes, Gina has maintained an incredible dedication to the care of and the memories of those with HIV disease.  For over 12 years, Gina Gatta served as a member of the Board of Directors for the National AIDS Memorial Grove, resigning in 2011 after having had been Board Co-Chair for two and one-half years.  While on the Board of Directors, Gina chaired ten consecutive World AIDS Day observances held in the Grove.

“Being of service to the Board and to the Grove was an honor for me.  But more importantly, being of service to my community, being there to help friends, to be the voice on the other end of the phone, to help feed and care for and fight for my friends, my community, THAT means the world to me.  I absolutely believe in giving back to my community, being a part of my community.  I have been very fortunate to have both the time and the capability to give to my community, to continue to do community volunteer work.  I was brought up believing that you have an obligation to help out those who are in need.  When a crisis arises, you respond.”

Gina has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Damron Company’s LGBT travel guide series since the early ’90s.  In 1992, she became Damron’s President.  She and her partner of 13 years Erika O’Connor and their dog Peaches O’Connor live in San Francisco.  Gina is the first woman to serve on the Board of Directors of GRGR West, the producers of REAL BAD, an annual San Francisco community fundraising event celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2013.

“I was brought back to the Grove in 1998 by Thom (Weyand), who was the executive director at that time. I had been at an early work day for the Grove when the Grove first began pulling blackberries, but had lost so many friends that by 1992 I was just numb and unable to even go to memorial services.  Those were such dark days.  But I was coaxed back first into helping out with the communication activities for the Grove which then eventually led to me being asked to serve on the Board.  The Grove is a very special place.  If I had to say one thing that the Grove has given me, it would be peace.  It became a place for me where I could come to terms with the AIDS epidemic that was not necessarily a hospital bed or another death or another illness.  It gave me hope, it gave me peace.  It has let me heal.  Slowly, it has let me heal.”

As the annual World AIDS Day observance in the Grove evolved into the nation’s signal event, Gina co-chaired ten consecutive observances, managing and growing the event into its current iteration.  When asked, Gina points to the honorees from the last World AIDS Day event she chaired (in 2008) as one of her proudest moments.

“In 2008, we brought the Stirling family to San Francisco to be our honorees for World AIDS Day.  I will never forget that day and how seeing this family who was literally living with AIDS (all three children and one parent) on stage so powerfully demonstrated the changing face of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S.  At the same time, it also reminded me that the courage and strength and dignity they had was exactly the same that I experienced with my friends living with HIV. “

Her involvement with the Grove has given Gina the opportunity to work alongside individuals she considers heroes, including Thom Weyand, Marsha Raulston and Representative Nancy Pelosi.  The Grove also afforded her the opportunity to also honor other heroes in her life, namely all those she has loved who have died from AIDS.

“If you really want to know my favorite spot in the Grove, you have to look up on the South Slope.  You might just find me sitting in one of the trees, looking down into the Grove.”

For guests coming from out of town, please click the Hilton logo to the right to make reservations for discounted accommodations at Hilton San Francisco Financial District, our official Light in the Grove and World AIDS Day hotel sponsor.

The National AIDS Memorial Grove Young Leaders Scholarship Program (YLSP) recognizes, supports and encourages the educational efforts of young people committed to active roles of public service and leadership in the struggle against HIV/AIDS.

YLSP is open to current high school seniors and college undergraduates who have demonstrated an active commitment to fighting AIDS (for example: providing peer-based prevention and education; advocacy or activism; public awareness; and/or practical, emotional or treatment support to people living with HIV/AIDS).

All applicants must describe their leadership experience and its significance to the future of the epidemic in an essay of up to 1,000 words. Applicants will be asked to provide a recommending letter. Applications will be judged by a panel of community leaders.

A minimum of five YLSP scholarships, ranging in amounts from $1,000 to $2,500, are awarded. Winners are recognized on World AIDS Day.

Who we are

The National AIDS Memorial Grove is a living tribute to all whose lives have been touched by HIV/AIDS. The Memorial provides a healing sanctuary for grieving, gathering and renewal, and is committed to keeping the human tragedy of AIDS in the forefront of the national consciousness.

We encourage applicants to learn about the Memorial, and if possible, to visit and explore its unique cultural and historic significance.

Requirements:

• A completed Application
• A brief personal statement explaining how the YLSP can assist you in achieving your academic goals
• A written essay, in which you: a) reflect on the ways in which your life has been impacted by HIV/AIDS, and b) explore and describe the ways in which you have provided public service or leadership designed to make a difference in the lives of people with HIV/AIDS, or people at risk
• A written letter of recommendation from a teacher, program coordinator, or other adult supervisor/ally/community leader familiar with your service

Click to Download 2013 YLSP Application Packet

Application Deadlines:

September 16, 2013: Application and Personal Statement Due

September 30, 2013: Essay Due

We were delighted that Leader Nancy Pelosi joined us at our Community Volunteer Workday on Saturday, April 21st. Her visit to the Grove commemorated her twenty-fifth year as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Pelosi was first elected to the House in 1987 to represent California’s 8th Congressional District, which includes most of San Francisco. In 2002, she made history when she became the first woman elected to lead a major political party in Congress; in 2007 she became the first woman elected Speaker of the House.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In her first speech to the Congress in 1987, Nancy Pelosi famously said she came to the House of Representatives to fight AIDS. In those days, some people suggested that she might not want to become identified with that particular cause. But Pelosi wanted to share what San Francisco had learned about prevention and care with the rest of the country, referring to the “San Francisco model of care.”

Leader Pelosi helped enact legislation to assist in housing of people living with HIV/AIDS. She pushed to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act, which assists thousands of low-income people in getting care and treatment. Her efforts to prevent drastic cuts in care and treatment for San Francisco have resulted in the restoration of millions of previously cut dollars from systems of care that people living with HIV/AIDS rely upon for access to medications and primary medical care. She is committed to ensuring that care, treatment, prevention and research initiatives receive funding increases. Pelosi continues fighting to expand access to care as part of comprehensive health reform. She has also led efforts to fund the global fight against AIDS. If all of that were not enough, Leader Pelosi was instrumental in passing the legislation in 1996 that designated our local “AIDS Grove” as this country’s National AIDS Memorial.

Representative Pelosi has faithfully commemorated her milestone years in Congress by volunteering at the Grove. On both her 10th and 20th anniversary years in Congress, she planted commemorative trees. Today, both these trees stand strong and graceful.

 Thank you Leader Pelosi for the honor of commemorating yet another milestone year in Congress with us at the National AIDS Memorial Grove!

Kile Ozier, Board Member

Dear Friends of the Grove -

I remember the very first memorial service I experienced there. It wasn’t yet even officially the AIDS Memorial Grove. We, my friends and I, were aware that this place was happening, and, when our dear friend Mike died, there was no other place we’d consider gathering to remember him.  These were such awful, clouded, dark days in San Francisco. Men were disappearing within weeks of being diagnosed…a virtual death sentence, almost every time. Guys would come from receiving their diagnosis to find their possessions on the street in front of their homes, evicted by terrified roommates.

We lived scared, most all the time. A previously-unnoticed freckle could spark panic, an insidious terror that underscored our lives as, day after day, our friends withered and blew away before our eyes. It was an act of bravery to hold, hug or kiss someone with AIDS; it was an act of activism.

Mike — he was dashing, handsome, smart, funny, a leader among many in San Francisco.  The head of sales and catering for a prominent San Francisco hotel, he came from an even more prominent Marin family, a family who swept him from the City to the family home in Marin and would allow none of us to visit him; would not even acknowledge that he had AIDS, or even that he was gay. None of us were permitted to say goodbye.

So, one grey, early morning, about thirty of us crept and clambered into the Grove and gathered by a fallen tree at the head of what was, at the time, a dried-up creek bed. We climbed over and through bramble and bush to get to the site for our memorial and, as the sun began to shine through the tangle of overhead branches, we began to share memories of our lost friend, another of hundreds – then thousands – we were to lose just here in San Francisco through the first years of the plague.

The Grove — long before it was a national memorial it was simply a forgotten dell in Golden Gate Park where an overlooked and dismissed population could gather and remember. In that public intimacy we shared, we found comfort.

Years later, the power of the Grove was brought home to me again on another early morning, as I took another dear friend to see it for his first time. A restaurateur, I wanted him to take on the sourcing and organization of food for the volunteers on the monthly workdays.  Without telling John where we were going, we drove to the park, talking and catching up as I parked and we walked in the morning quiet down the unmarked portal pathway to reach the meadow. As we entered the broad, quiet green space, John put his hand on my arm, stopping me; he looked me right in the eye. In a whisper, he said, “…Kile, is this the Grove?!”  Yes, it is.  Quiet for a moment, he said, “…what do you want?” I told him. He said yes. The Grove did the compelling asking simply by being there.

Today, the Grove is the National AIDS Memorial. Evolving to embrace our mandate as the sole, nationally-designated AIDS Memorial, our responsibility to articulate and address what has and continues to happen through the devastation of this plague is heightened with each passing day. This memorial must embrace and nurture those dealing with immediate and ongoing loss; it must also articulate, for those who were not there, the bleakness and devastation that decimated a generation. Finally, this Grove must serve as reminder and acknowledgment that we and those awful, dark times are not forgotten – a heady responsibility.

There are so many stories to tell and to represent. With this missive, I share the smallest portion of my own experience. I go often to the Grove and quietly remember the man who gave to me my own experience of unconditional love. Each of you will have your own tapestry of memory around the plague and this place.  And, with the passing of time, even those who have not yet experienced such loss must be touched by the Grove.

I share my personal stories to invite your ongoing and renewed financial support. Simply put, I write on behalf of the board of directors in outreach and appeal for personal contributions to support the growth and evolution of the Grove into the National AIDS Memorial it has been designated. As your hearts are open, we ask this of you.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our offices at 415-765-0497.

With thanks,

Kile Ozier, Board Member

From March 24th through April 7th

The work in this exhibition heralds an approach to botanical art that is not often seen. Come view this unique installation at Macy’s Union Square Watches Department, Main Floor, and in the Tabletop Department, Level 6. Come experience the magnificent beauty inspired by the National AIDS Memorial Grove!

On March 27th at 6:00 PM, join Mary L. Harden, director of The Mary L. Harden School of Botanical Illustration, in Macy’s Tabletop Department, Level 6. Ms. Harden will speak about botanical illustration, and the big ideas inherent in the watercolor paintings created for the National AIDS Memorial Grove. Afterwards, meet the artists – discover why each painting is so unique!

Then, on March 30th and April 6th from Noon until 2:00 PM, watch the artists create stunning pieces of art in Macy’s Tabletop Department, Level 6.

All proceeds will benefit the National AIDS Memorial Grove. Don’t miss this opportunity to purchase one or more of these exquisite original pieces!