Personally, I’m so close to my goal that I can’t stand not reaching it.  This money does such amazing things for people who really need it; it goes a lot further than it ever will in your pocket. 

So I’m offering incentives to anyone who donates today, Saturday May 15th.

Two New York City comedy club tickets, worth $50, OR 40% off your next AVON purchase if you donate by 10pm tonight.

And for anyone who donates $100 or more, a free car wash or delicious home-cooked meal for you and the family.

The time is now, please donate to AIDS Walk New York.

Shop the 7duckets Etsy page for photos of all sorts and all sizes, 20% of every sale goes directly to The Cure Score for AIDS Walk New York.  Please consider this creative way to donate.  Click the pic to browse and shop!

Why do you walk?

Why do you donate?

Why do you care?

Tell us.

You can visit old posts and our photo album for details on the fun we had during AIDS Walk 2009. 

Browse our page for information on how to donate securely online through aidswalk.net and how to join our team and walk with us in May!  It’s never too early to help an organization in need.  And if you’re in the giving mood this holiday, AIDS Walk can surely use your help. 

We understand the economy is rough but every little bit helps.  And consider advice from the Frappuccino Fund.  Giving up your expensive coffee even just twice a week can save the life of someone who has HIV/AIDS.  That’s how much you can help. 

Stay tuned for more info, follow us on twitter and become a fan of our Facebook page!  Thanks in advance for your support this year!!  Happy Holidays!!

Come to CureStock’09 tonight!

TEN
I’ll be your best friend!

NINE
After tonight, I’ll be done harrassing you about it, so you might as well be there to celebrate your freedom from me!

EIGHT
YOU LOVE ME!!! Or at least like me a little.  (Let’s hope that’s true)

SEVEN
LIVE MUSIC, COOKIES, COMEDY SHOW TICKETS!!  I mean, I’ll be giving away 4 comedy club tickets to some of the best comedy clubs in New York City.  The tickets are worth $100, the raffle tickets are only a buck and you’ll have several chances to win.  You do the math! 

SIX
It’s the cheapest concert you’ll go to all year.

FIVE
It can help you break your coffee addiction (see how here).

FOUR
You like booze.  (admit it)

THREE
It’s Thursday night!  Close enough to the weekend.  In college, we’d call this Thirsty Thursday (see #4)

TWO
There are more important things and more crucial diseasesout there than swine flu!  For christ’s sake.

ONE
Because approximately 1 in 70 New Yorkers is infected with HIV/AIDS.  Think of how small a number 70 is in the grand scheme of things.  How many people do you pass by every day?  Go to class with?  Go to work with?  Ride on the subway with?  See when you go shopping?  Sure maybe most of those people are strangers, maybe they aren’t, but they still need our help.  You don’t have to be infected to be affected.

So how can you help?  For starters, you can come out tonight and brave the rain (you won’t melt, I promise).  We’ll be rockin’ out from 6-10pm at the Village Pourhouse(64 Third Ave – use 11th St side entrance).  There will be live musicfrom Astrid Pierce, Amy Regan, Laura Cheadle and Underwhelmed.  There will be a bake sale and awesome raffle prizes, like tickets to a comedy show and gifts from Warner Bros. Records.  It’s $5 at the door, all ages, all proceeds benefit AIDS Walk New York. 

So loosen up your purse strings a little, splurge on the $5 and enjoy a night out while doing something extraordinary for someone else.  You’ll wake up Friday morning feeling better than you’ve ever felt after a night of drinking!

Added to CureStock’09 – A BAKE SALE!  Because beer, cupcakes and live music sounds like THE perfect way to spend a Thursday night!

Come check out Underwhelmed, Laura Cheadle, Amy Regan and Astrid Pierce, enter for chances to win comedy show tickets and gifts from Warner Bros Records and of course, buy some oh so tasty treats courtesy of the Cure Score and Treats and Sweets.

All of this goodness goes down in ONE WEEK, Thursday May 7th from 6-10pm at the Village Pourhouse (64 Third Ave – Use 11th St Entrance Please) ALL AGES, $5, all proceeds benefit AIDS WALK NEW YORK!  Yeehaw!

The Obama Administration, the first presidential administration to encourage the fight against HIV/AIDS, has just endorsed a campaign called 9 1/2 Minutes because President Obama wants you to know that in the United States, someone is infected with HIV every 9 1/2 minutes. Donating to the Cure Score’s AIDS Walk donation pool can help slow this epidemic down. Visit the 9 1/2 Minutes website for details or myspace.com/muse_ickk to donate.

It’s Earth Day, and many of you who care are in giving, kind and charitable moods.  Why?  Because we like where we live and we want it to be around for a while, and that takes commitment, leadership and a helpful mind.  What if you took it a step further?  Because the earth is a beautiful place that must be kept healthy by us, it’s responsible inhabitants so why not stand up for responsible inhabitants in need?  Perhaps I sound like a broken record, or perhaps I don’t because none of you read what I preach.  In two weeks, I will be standing on a stage at an event I built from the ground up and encouraging all who are present to think of someone who needs them.  So if I do sound like a broken record, forgive me, for it is not for my sake but for the sake of those who need you. 

AIDS is not in fashion right now, so I understand the resistance.  This generation is about being “green” and fighting diseases like breast cancer, and all with good reason.  I support those causes too.  When I was younger, AIDS was all the rage because it was new and heavily publicized so everyone was talking about it.  Now, no one  talks about it, but it’s still around.  People are still becoming infected with it every day.  People are still dying from it every day.  That makes us responsible for it just as much as global climate change or keeping peace in our country, so what are YOU going to do about it?  Will you encourage proper sex education teachings to young people across the country so they’re informed enough to be careful and not contract the disease?  Will you help provide currently infected patients with the treatment they need to live longer and healthier lives?  Will you help support research to find a cure?  Will you donate your time and money to walk with us on May 17th in New York City, to spread awareness and remind people that the epidemic is still alive?  Ask yourself what you will do.  As you turn out the lights and recycle and do everything else our planet earth needs today (and everyday), I dare you to think, also, of the people that walk this earth and how some of they might need you too.

click here for details.

and thank you.

We need your help, desperately.  I’m not above being desperate.  Please see the poster for details, tell your friends and come on down!  ALL ARE WELCOME!!!!  We’ll have cookies!!!!  And you can win comedy club tickets, as well as gifts from Warner Bros & Reprise Records!!!!

Welcome to the Donation Station, your one stop source for reasons to donate your hard earned cash to AIDS Walk New York and the Cure Score.  WARNING: Please mind the gap.

Why Donate?  Why not?  Okay, I get it though, the economy is in the trash and you’re worried about making your next mortgage payment or car payment, so donating to charity is the last thing on your mind.  Well, I’m here to tell you there are ways to make it happen.  I’m 85% unemployed at the moment, but I realized that there are small luxuries we afford ourselves here and there.  These are the luxuries we don’t ever mention when we’re complaining about money because we want to hold on to them for our own sanity.  But hear me out on this one because sometimes our small luxuries are things we don’t really need as pick me ups as much as we think, and if we put everything into perspective, that money could be better spent.  This is why I recommend donating something, anything, to AIDS Walk New York, because honestly, realizing at the end of the day that you did something for someone else, for someone that needed your support, will make you feel 1000 times better than your small luxury.

Obama Nation:When President Obama was elected last November 4th and then inaugurated this January 20th, did you feel even the slightest bit of inspiration?  Everything he did to get to that point, and every call to action he made to US during his campaign and thereafter, inspired me to do more with my time.  Life is short and I realized I needed to hurry up and find the meaning in mine.  What better time to do so, than a time that the entire nation was changing along with me?  A wise man once said to be the change you want to see.  We’re it, folks.  There’s no one out there who’s going to change the world for us, if we want it changed, we have to go out there and do it ourselves.  Why not do it here, where you can do small things to make a huge difference?

Why AIDS WALK?  Believe it or not, talk of AIDS and it’s effects has decreased tremendously over the years.  I don’t know about you, but right around the time I was born, AIDS was discovered for the first time and in the years following, everyone was talking about it because it was new and it was horrible and no one knew how to handle it.  Doctors and scientists were constantly finding new information on the disease along with constant new statistics and health classes across the country were using AIDS as the prime teaching tool to “keep it in your pants” – those are my words, not my health teachers.  NBA star Magic Johnson helped AIDS become more talked about when he announced he was infected with HIV, and then it seemed more and more was being heard about the disease, how to avoid it and how to treat it.  Somehow AIDS has taken a backseat to other mainstream and sexually transmitted diseases alike, in fact, it seems these days the only time we hear about it is when we’re talking about underdeveloped nations, but the fact of the matter is, it’s still here, right in our own front yard!  It’s time we stand up against it and reopen all of our eyes to it.  As cliche as it sounds, you don’t have to be INFECTED to be AFFECTED.  I learned that the hard way at 7 when my uncle died from it.  (Please see below for AIDS Statistics)

Why NEW YORK? Did you know that as of 2007, New York State has the HIGHEST amount of Cumulative AIDS Cases (meaning from the start of the epidemic through 2007) of all 50 U.S. states?  With 179,116 infected adults or adolescents and 2,345 infected children under 13, New York takes the lead, followed closely by California, and Florida.  (Top ten includes – in order: New York, California, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, Maryland, Puerto Rico).  This is not something we ought to be proud of.  The Giants winning the Super Bowl, that’s a good representation of New York – this, is not.  Step up, do something about it.  Help educate people, help save lives, help AIDS Walk New York.

Frappuccino Fund:  If you haven’t yet heard about the Frappuccino Fund, you clearly don’t read my blog.  I’ll let it slide this time, but don’t let it happen again.  The Frappuccino Fund merely requires a jar (of sorts, or a bag or something to hold a few dollars in) and an open mind.  You see, AIDS Walk New York works hard to raise much needed funds for people living with HIV and AIDS and one way they do this is by offering injections that help patients live longer, stronger and healthier day by day.  Each injection costs roughly $10.  Think about what you spend $10 on in a day, week or month.  From my experience, that $10 can easily be thrown out the door on things we may or may not realize we’re addicted to – like coffee.  A typical “overpriced-coffee-house coffee” can be upwards of $4, so what if you laid off the stuff for a few days and took the money you’d be saving, put it in the jar or baggie and in a few weeks, donate what you’ve accumulated to the Cure Score’s AIDS Walk New York team fund?  Your 2 cups of coffee could make the world of a difference to someone in line to get that shot.  Think about it. 

CureStock’09: The Concert Benefiting AIDS Walk New York:Are you the type of person who only donates to causes if there’s something in it for you?  Well I have just the solution.  May 7th, 2009 from 6-10pm, the Cure Score will be taking over the Village Pourhouse (64 Third Ave @ 11th St, NYC – USE 11th STREET SIDE ENTRANCE PLEASE – right across from Webster Hall) for a one night only musical event featuring UNDERWHELMED and SPECIAL GUESTS.  In addition to the live music (and drinks, of course), we’ll be raffling off some amazing prizes and selling home-made baked goods.  All this for only $5 – all of which goes to AIDS Walk NY!  So bring your friends and family and have a good time!  When you’re hungover the next day, you won’t have to worry about feeling icky because you donated to charity.

United States HIV/AIDS Statistics:¹

• More than a half MILLION people in the United States are infected with HIV/AIDS - roughly 15,000 of which died from the disease in 2007 alone.
• A breakdown of adults and adolescents diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 2006 based on GENDER shows as follows: 26% female / 73% male – based on 33 reporting U.S. states.
• 80% of infected females became infected by high-risk heterosexual activity, 19% by injection drug use.
• 33% of all infected became infected by high-risk heterosexual activity.
• 49% of infected Americans are black; 30% white; 18% hispanic.
• An estimate 6,554 known AIDS cases in the U.S. were reported in people between the ages of 40-44.  That’s the highest.  The rest of the age chart looks as follows:

  

  For more statistics, see the link below.

Thanks for reading, and please help the cause.  Visit myspace.com/muse_ickk for more details on our team, including how to join and how to donate, as well as info on the FrapFund and CureStock’09.

____________________________________________________________
¹ All statistics received from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention  (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm)
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