Event is June 7

By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

Normally, ACR Health and its supporters would be spending a Sunday morning in early June enjoying the trails at Beaver Lake Nature Center and each other’s company at the annual AIDS Walk/Run. This year, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, participants will “gather” not in person but via Zoom, the popular videoconferencing app, at 10 a.m. Sunday, June 7, for the 28th annual AIDS Walk/Run.

“It’s our oldest and most successful event,” said Wil Murtaugh, executive director of ACR Health. “In my heart, it’s a little sad that we can’t get together in the park at the lovely Beaver Lake Nature Center, but you can participate in this from anywhere. It’s going to be interesting and very moving.”

ACR Health, which has offices in nine counties, provides a variety of services for Central and Upstate New Yorkers living with chronic illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and mental health issues. Founded in 1983 as the AIDS Task Force of Central New York, ACR Health helps people navigate health insurance, provides testing for sexually transmitted infections, and offers educational programs and community support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning youth.

ACR Health tested the virtual fundraiser idea with the 22nd annual Hike for Life, which normally takes place in Utica. The agency rechristened the April 25 event “Hike from Home.”

This year’s virtual AIDS Walk/Run will feature video presentations from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office and the director of the AIDS Institute at the Department of Health to mark the 2020 Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative. In 2014, Cuomo introduced a plan to reduce New York state’s new HIV cases to 750 per year by 2020.

“When we started this event in 1993, New York state had over 15,000 HIV infections in one year. Fast forward 28 years later — we’re under 2,000 [new] infections statewide,” Murtaugh said.

New York City is closer to “ending the epidemic” because of wider access to public transportation and testing and treatment.

“In the city, you can hop on the subway and get to a clinic in five minutes. Up here, we don’t have proper trains and buses and you could be an hour away from testing,” Murtaugh said.

ACR Health clients will share their stories of how the agency has helped them, and there will be a virtual “Memory Lane” dedicated to the lives claimed by AIDS.

“When you walk in any of our walks, normally it’s the last thing you’ll see in the last half a mile,” Murtaugh said.

While the AIDS Walk/Run is a chance for ACR Health’s supporters to celebrate how far the fight against HIV/AIDS has come, it is also a major fundraiser for the nonprofit. Fundraising has dipped during the COVID-19 pandemic, Murtaugh said.

“We ask people to raise a minimum of $25, whether they pay that themselves or ask five friends to give $5,” he said.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, demand for many of ACR Health’s services has skyrocketed. Murtaugh said the organization’s food assistance program, which usually serves 30 families each month, served 300 families in April. ACR Health distributed 13,000 diapers to area families as well. Last month, ACR Health helped 1,200 people sign up for health insurance after they lost their jobs.

“There’s a lot of people in need,” Murtaugh said.

Clients have told the agency they have had to choose between paying for food and paying rent.

“So many of our clients are chronically ill or have HIV, so they need to keep a roof over their heads,” Murtaugh said.

While ACR Health was founded 36 years ago to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic, its mission has expanded to help people deal with opioid addiction. Its syringe exchanges in Syracuse, Watertown and Utica remain open.

“We are still open — we’re essential, we have to be,” Murtaugh said. “People are relying more on substances to deal with the stress of the [coronavirus] epidemic.”

While support groups cannot meet in person and schools are shuttered, ACR Health is continuing its outreach services for young people through social media, Zoom and by phone. The agency is running social media contests to keep adolescents engaged in learning about pregnancy and STI prevention, and support group facilitators make an effort to contact LGBTQ youth daily.

“We’re getting almost higher attendance via social media than in our in-person support groups,” Murtaugh said.

Even the food and diaper deliveries allow ACR Health employees to connect with their clients — from a distance. Murtaugh said employees drop off items at clients’ doorsteps and then step back 6 feet before conversing with clients.

“We can at least talk, but there’s no transmission of disease,” he said.

Since many of ACR Health’s clients are already immunocompromised, COVID-19 is especially a threat.

“HIV/AIDS has killed way too many people. It’s the biggest pandemic that has ever hit mankind. I certainly hope that COVID-19 does not catch up to that,” Murtaugh said.

In order to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS, opioid addiction and COVID-19, ACR Health needs support from fundraisers like the AIDS Walk/Run.

“Our mission is to make the community healthier,” Murtaugh said, “and we can’t do that without the support of the community.”