OT-2007 Miami AIDS Walk was a success!

WHAT A GREAT DAY! The morning began so nicely - cool breeze as I drove over the Causeway and watched the most incredible sunrise as I drove to the Miami Beach convention center. My son, and his friend met me as all three of us walked in memory of his dad and my cousin and last but not least my best friend, David. I want to all of you that made a pledge to the aids walk. I completed the 5K walk in 45 mins - I would have finished sooner but my son stopped @ several shops along the route. Thank you for the donations. You helped me get closer to my goal of raising $1000.00. As of this morning I had raise about 610.00. For anyone still interested in pledging the website will be open for a few more weeks (end of may). Below is the link: https://www.kintera.org/faf/login/loginParticipant.asp?ievent=185930&lis=1&kntae185930=E27 F65F7C2BB492591357C11F82B8726&login=lmenu I'm registered as: Barbi Cabrera Thanks again everyone! God Bless you all! Love and lollipops, Barbi

Barbi, Hi! Congrats on getting through the 5K. And I applaud you for working for such a worthy cause. HIV/AIDS awareness is near and dear to my heart. I began working as a nurse in 1991 at the height of the AIDS crisis and worked on the Infectious Disease Unit at that hospital for the next 15 years. Our unit for several years was basically a hospice unit for pts. sufferring from AIDS and it's opportunistic infections and illnesses. It was quite an humbling experience to be with so many nice young people during the last moments of their lives. I can remember several of them fighting so hard to just survive long enough for the protease inhibitors to become available. They just knew they were the answer or at least part of the answer. Barbi I am so sorry for your losses to this terrible disease and I am sure your loved ones would be proud of what you are doing! On another note I am happy to hear that you will be coming to Orlando! I am too! I just have to meet you. I will be staying at the Best Western Plaza. Hope to see you there! Kat

I'll be staying there too! God Bless you Kat - for all you did to help those in the Hospice unit. I sat in many a nursery in Philly back in the day just rocking these poor innocent babes whom no one would go near to because they feared "catching aids". I rocked my share of sick babies never knowing if holding them that night would be my last. But I did it anyway. I can't wait to meet you too! See you Friday!

Barbi, I know what you mean about people being afraid to go near the babies. In our city back then we didn't have very many sick babies (that came later for us). Our "babies" on our unit were mostly grown men but still our babies. Several of them were just teenagers. We had lots of nurses who were afraid to work on our unit. I started working there as a student in nursing school. Back then they started coming in very early after being diagnosed and the downhill slide was often quite rapid. 1 1/2 -2 years was about the life expectancy after diagnoses. A couple of my guys were high school classmates of mine. I can remember one of my earliest experiences there when the meal trays were cardboard and all the dishes and silverware were plastic so everything could be thrown away in the room. One time I saw one of the food service staff open the pts. door and slide the tray across the floor into the room to the pt. so that she wouldn't have to go in. I had a fit. Can you imagine the humiliation of having to pick your meal tray up off of the floor. Policy was changed very quickly after that incident so that food service would just bring up the cart with the meal trays and our unit personnel would deliver them to the pt. What a long way we have come since then but yes the fight still must go on! Bless you Barbi for all the babies you held and loved all those years ago. It's a little like being a firefighter... It takes a very special person to go toward the fire when everyone else is running away. See ya Friday May 4! Can hardly wait! Kat

Hi Barbi, I am a 15-year HIV/AIDS instructor trainer for the Red Cross. Thank you for your support and passion not only for those living with HIV and AIDS, but also prevention education. You are awesome. Hugs, Kristen

Thanks Kristen. I don't do it for any accolades, but I do it because back in 1989/90, I felt the stigma, saw my son be ostrosized for being a 4 yr who's daddy died of aids. I wish I could make this disease disappear. I can't but I can certainly continue to champion a cause to raise awareness and most importantly to education those who society forget about. Thank you! for all you do as well! barbi