Candlelight walk marks World AIDS Day in Lynn

LYNN-A candlelight walk followed by an evening of music and remembrance will mark World AIDS Day in Lynn on Monday, Dec. 1, starting on the steps to City Hall.”It’s a very solemn and beautiful procession, usually with a couple hundred people and a police escort,” said Kathy Day, program director of Strongest Link, a Lynn program providing services to those who are HIV-positive.According to Day, who is organizing World AIDS Day activities in Lynn for the fifth consecutive year, the rate of HIV infection in the city is on the rise, particularly among people of color.”The important thing about the walk and the music is that it gives the community a greater awareness that there’s still a problem out there that needs attention,” she said, adding that new drugs allow many of those with HIV to lead relatively normal lives. That, she said, tends to take the public’s eye off the problem and with it vital funding.The candlelight walk steps off from City Hall at 5:30 p.m. and heads for St. Stephen’s Church at 74 South Common St. where the music program commences from 6-7 p.m.The evening includes a performance by the Lynn Classical Concert Chorus led by Laura Weiss, and welcoming remarks by the Rev. Jane Gould from St. Stephen’s Church as well as from Day and Strongest Link.Day and “Rob G” from Project Cope will read off the names of those lost to AIDS. Brian King and Mike Leggio will perform “Stand By Me”, followed by Julio Vare singing “Cancion de la Alegria.” A dance by ITM In the Mak’n Step Team and the Teen Health Ambassadors from Girls Inc. of Lynn will follow.Sonia Johnson from the Women of Color AIDS Council and co-director of SISTAH’s POWAH, will offer the voice of experience. Sal Baglio with Billy Carl Mancini & Ruby Bird will perform “All You Need is Love.” The music ends with the chorus offering its version of “Give Us Hope.”The evening’s theme is Loss, Learn, Listen, Live, which symbolizes the HIV epidemic, said Day, citing a message from the event planning committee: “Our responsibility is to learn from those we have lost, it is to end the stigma, and to continue the hard work. We have already lost too many and too much.”Strongest Link, CAB Health & Recovery, the Lynn Community Health Center, HES Gay & Bi Men’s Health Program, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Girls Inc. of Lynn and Project COPE are sponsors of the event.For more information, call Day at 781-581-2393.