wednesday, April 26, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Greeks sponsor spaghetti dinner
By Jessie Mayer
writer@kanson.com
Kansan staff writer
The Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Association are working in conjunction with the Douglas County AIDS Project this week to raise AIDS awareness.
"This year we are doing more of an AIDS awareness week," said Nicole Schnellbacher, the spring philanthropy chair for the Panhellenic Association and coordinator of the events. "We are really trying to promote awareness on campus and in the community and to raise money for DCAP."
To heighten awareness, IFC and Panhellenic members will play host to the third annual spaghetti dinner from 5 to 7 tonight at the St. Lawrence Catholic Center, 1631 Crescent Road.
Tickets for the all-you-can-eat dinner, which will include spaghetti, salad, bread sticks, beverages and dessert, cost $3 and are available at the information booth at Wesco Beach today or at the dinner tonight, said Brooke Evans, a member of the Panhellenic AIDS walk committee.
"We were lucky almost all of the food was donated, so all of the money will go to DCAP," Evans said.
At 6:15 p.m., Kelly Roberts, who is living with HIV and lost her husband to AIDS, will talk about her struggle and the issues surrounding the disease, said Sidney Hardgrave, executive director of the Douglas County AIDS Project. Last year's dinner served about 550 people and raised about $3,500. Schnoblacher said
"It's always been really successful," she said. "We're aiming at
$4,000 this year, and we're estimating between 550 and 600 people will come."
But the dinner is not the only AIDS awareness event of the week.
The Wesco Beach booth will provide AIDS and HIV information, condoms, red ribbons and the opportunity to register for Saturday's AIDS walk. Schnellbacher said. Coupons for $10 off a confidential AIDS test at Watkins Memorial Health Center also will be given, making the cost of an AIDS test $10.
The Douglas County AIDS project will play host Saturday to the 10th annual "Walk for Health," which is a 5 kilometer walk that will raise money for the Douglas County Project. The walk will be at South Park at 10 a.m. Registration begins at 9 a.m. Participants are encouraged to collect pledges prior to the event.
AIDS AND HIV STATS
Of the 40,000 new cases of HIV each year in the United States, 50 percent are in people younger than 25 years of age.
200,000 people in the United States are HIV positive and don't know it
About 1 in 300 Americans are HIV positive
Complications from AIDS is the second leading cause of death behind accidents.
> More than 3 million children and youth younger than 25 became infected with HIV in 1999. (8,500 cases per day.)
Total number of Americans infected is estimated at 900,000
Source: Douglas County AIDS Project
Marva Miller holds an inflated condom during her discussion on living with HIV. Part of Miller's speech last night at the Kansas Union was the notion that AIDS did not discriminate, and everyone is at risk if they are not careful. Photo by Craia Bennett/KANSAN
HIV speech includes two-foot condom
By Warisa Chulindra
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Marva Miller stood in front of 23 people last night at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union with a blown-up condom, stretching two feet long and half a foot wide.
A 48-year-old divorced mother of four, Miller spoke frankly about living with HIV, peppering her message with a healthy dose of humor. Her presentation was a part of AIDS Awareness Month, which was sponsored by the Douglas County AIDS Project.
Miller said that wearing a condom during sex was important in preventing the spread of HIV and that a common excuse men used for not wearing one was that the condoms were not big enough.
"You ever see somebody this size?" Miller asked, holding up the blown-up condom. "If you do, run away in the other direction. I don't think animals get that big. I won't allow you to fall for this."
This was the third year Miller spoke at the University of Kansas for AIDS Awareness Month. The event was co-sponsored by the KU Chapter of the National Council for Negro Women.
After donating plasma in December 1994, Miller learned she had contracted HIV from her husband of two years. It turned out his first wife had HIV, and she hadn't known.
She emphasized the importance of learning a partner's sexual history — something she failed to do.
"Get to know the person," she said. "Talk to them."
Miller said that for the first six months she knew she had HIV, she contemplated suicide. She even thought she could get rid of it by scrubbing her skin and through her tears.
"At first it was 'why me?' she, said. "Then it was 'why not me?' What makes me better
than anyone else?"
But Miller said she came to terms with it and decided to become an AIDS educator. She founded the volunteer organization Women on a Mission, a Kansas City, Mo., organization that provides AIDS education and helps women start HIV and AIDS support groups. Miller maintains her nursing license so she won't have to reapply if she decides to go back to nursing and to add to her credibility
as an HIV educator.
Tionna Pitner, Atwood junior, said she was interested in hearing Miller's story.
"She's a very dynamic speaker with a lot to say," Pitner said. "It was different from other speeches. It was very motivating, and it wasn't self pitying."
Beth Hoerman, a 1999 KU graduate, said speakers such as Miller were important.
"It's a voice that needs to be heard," she said.
City approves bike lanes for three streets
By John Audlehelm
Kansan staff writer
The Lawrence city commission last night approved bike lanes on Naimsim Drive and 15th and 19th streets, and told city staff to look for ways to put a bike lane on Ninth Street.
The commission officially received and endorsed the compilation of the traffic safety commission's months of work on the subject, except for its recommendations against bike lanes on Ninth and Louisiana streets.
Bike lanes on Louisiana will be addressed later as part of a larger traffic-calming project on that street.
Michael Almon, Lawrence resident, said the traffic安全 commis
sion, in recommending against bike lanes on Ninth, did not look at the possibility of removing parking on only the south side of the street
instead of both sides.
The opposition to bike lanes on Ninth came from businesses that would lose parking to make way for the bike lanes.
"That option was not put on the agenda for the traffic safety commission," he said. "That alienated these merchants."
But Almon and other citizens said removing parking on only the south side was a good compromise.
Ben Burton, Ocean, N.J., junior.
gave the commissioners a petition for bike lanes on some Lawrence streets, including Ninth — which he said had almost 400 signatures.
Aaron Bartlett, transportation planner for the city, said the bike lane proposals were only the core of a citywide bike system, which would include bike lanes, routes and paths.
Almon also said that city planners needed to look at bike lanes on Ninth as part of a citywide system and that the city also needed to look at the larger picture.
"I find it ironic if they're the trafic safety commission that they looked at parking and merchant issues," he said.
"I can't remember the last time I've seen any cars parked on that side of the street," he said.
asked city staff members to draft an ordinance requiring some new streets to be 36 feet wide, instead of 31, to accommodate future bike lanes.
In other action, the city commission:
In the vote, commissioners also
- Voted to apply for a trigger lock giveaway program sponsored by Project HomeSafe, a national program sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
In addition to giving away as many as 5,000 trigger locks, the program will also distribute gun safety information.
“It’s all in the interest of public
mavor.” mavor Jim Henry said.
Heard public transit administrator Karin Rexroad's presentation of the new name of the city's bus system, the Lawrence Transit System. Its nickname will be the "T."
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