Les Lewis unlocked the door to Colorado AIDS Project at 4:00 am on October 2, 1988. Les was the coordinator for the first Colorado AIDS walk called “From All Walks of Life.” It would go from Cheeseman to Washington Parks then end up at Civic Center Park. For the next 4 hours, 12 volunteers loaded the 18 ft. rental truck and a caravan of cars rushed to Cheeseman Park to set up tables, 85 cases of water, programs, t-shirts, and decorations.
“It went very well” Les noted, “There isn’t much that I would change for next year.” Yet the response to HIV was just beginning to change.
“Unique Pneumonia Strikes Gay Men” was the first article mentioning HIV in OUT FRONT in 1981, Kaposi’s sarcoma was diagnosed in Colorado by 1982. Phrases like “what we know” and “gay cancer, gay health crisis, fighting for our lives” filled the pages of Out Front by 1983 when CAP was founded. Phil Nash, writing in 1984, noted that hate mongers like Jerry Falwell declared the “gay plague” was god’s punishment for those who broke the laws of “moral decency.”
By 1986 CAP was among a community of AIDS Service Organizations while the public response to HIV was as complicated at the virus. Hard working healthcare professionals at clinics, hospitals and in community groups fought for an “extreme paucity” of funds as Dr. David Cohn of Denver Health noted.
By 1987 the pages of Out Front were filled and growing with dozens of obituaries each month.
“The number of AIDS patients at Denver General Hospital (DGH) has increased dramatically… money for treating them has not,” headlined Out Front in August, 1988.
Groups like the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) Denver protested care and lack of funding at Denver Health as well as the government’s response. In October, 1987 Denver ACT UP protested Governor Romer’s declaration of that month as Square Dance and AIDS Awareness Month, some saying, “You’re dancing on our graves.”
Though funding was tied up in politics Julian Rush, the first coordinator for CAP, noted a wealth of volunteers kept coming. The first AIDS walk was held in LA in 1985, and by 1988 AIDS Walks were a main tool for funding HIV/AIDS treatment. Jeff Trujillo, the current coordinator the AIDS Walk & 5K Run Colorado, noted the first aids walk was a way for people draw awareness and fundraise for HIV services.
Lewis noted everyone from Kaiser Permanente, United Airlines, US West, hospitals, healthcare providers, churches, every GLBT group and ASO in Colorado, and leaders from Rep. Pat Schroeder, Governor Roy Romer, Mayor Federico Peña, Council Woman Cathy Donahue, and city auditor Wellington Webb were at “All Walks of Life.” He also recorded 61 corporate groups, and nearly 2000 people. The goal was $200,000, though only $113,000 was collected, Lewis noted because “only about half” turned in their pledge sheets.
In the decade that followed, according to Trujillo, Colorado AIDS Walk fundraising fluctuated from as little as $90,000 in 1989 to $1.2 million by 1997. Though the number of walkers and pledgers kept pace with the fundraising, overall they have since declined though crowds have remained steady. There are more people watching, and not walking.
Governor Romer formed the Governor’s Council on AIDS in 1987, and later under the leadership of Mary Lou Johnson, it won victories like anonymous testing. For Dr. Cohn and the Denver Health Infectious Disease Clinic, as well as everyone else, times changed. There were Health Resources and Services Administration grants for drug trials, but access to drugs like AZT didn’t come to Denver until 1990.
The 1990 Ryan White CARE Act, whose late teenager namesake was forced out of school and won a legal battle to return, helped expand the “San Francisco community based model” of care with $220 million. That is putting money in ASO and health provider hands to treat People Living with AIDS — something that AIDS walk strives for today.
For a generation HIV alone has not necessarily been a death sentence. Of the many thousands in Colorado who have died from HIV/AIDS, countless more live who can get medicine and use it. Yet too many get the virus or don’t know they have it. Funding has declined and changed, so CAP has changed to Colorado Health Network and faithfully serves over 4,000 clients.
Of all the numbers and memorials, it is people who matter most – volunteers, supporters, leaders, health providers, and community members. “There were so many people lining the route” noted Les Lewis, “it was a wonder to see.” Remember, to walk for life saves lives.
