Photo from Star Ledger
From a grassy slope overlooking Rutgers University's Douglass College campus, Riki Jacobs surveyed the crowd of people prepping for the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation's ninth annual AIDS Walk New Jersey.
There were plenty of familiar faces among the 1,000-plus people stretching, tossing Frisbees and grooving to a Teddy Pendergrass tune. But, more importantly, the Eagleton Institute's Woodlawn appeared to swell with at least 400 more walkers than last year, Jacobs said.
Given Hyacinth's ambitious task - raising money to help the estimated 23,000 New Jerseyans living with AIDS and its viral precursor, HIV - Jacobs was encouraged.
"This shows that the general public is concerned about AIDS in New Jersey" said Jacobs, executive director of New Brunswick based Hyacinth.
The 10-kilometer walk through the streets of New Brunswick and Rutgers University embraced Girl Scouts, teen-aged boys and girls, families, corporate co-workers and family and friends of people 'living with AIDS. Each promised to gather money donated by personal sponsors; organizers hoped the total donations would reach $200,000. Each participant signs up sponsors who pledge to donate money for every mile walked.
Last year's walk raised $100,000, Jacobs said.
Besides providing services for people with AIDS, Hyacinth sponsors education and awareness programs.
New Jersey, which has the fifth largest number of AIDS cases in the country, is a difficult state to organize AIDS services because there isn't one urban center to focus efforts on, walk organizers said. Instead, Hyacinth must spread its campaign across the state's cities, suburbs and rural zones.
And with media coverage of new AIDS drugs, people tend to become more apathetic about the disease, Jacobs said.
"That makes education hard," she said.
This year, Hyacinth hired a national public relations firm to boost interest in its programs, including the 1997 AIDS Walk New Jersey. The group got a new logo and erected walk-registration stands along highways.
As the crowd of walkers gathered at the starting line, marked by a rainbow of balloons, Jacobs noted that effort seemed to have worked.
Photo from Star Ledger