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Ride4CAP
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Looking for a fun way to stay fit and make a difference? Then join us for the Second Annual Ride4CAP, a 204-mile two-day ride within the Cascade Bicycle Club's Seattle to Portland (STP) Ride. Among the 10,000 riders of STP, you'll find a fun and dedicated team of riders using this opportunity to raise help in the fight against AIDS while also getting the unique benefits of a supported ride. Ride4CAP's goal for 2012 is to mobilize 100 riders and 30 crew. So come on, won't you be one of them? The quick details are below and more details and registration can be found at: www.ride4cap.org.
What: 2nd Annual Ride4CAP via the Seattle-to-Portland Ride: 10,000 riders making the 200+ mile ride in two days.
Benefits: Raise $1,000 or more in donations, and you'll get a supported ride, including registration; a cycling jersey; transport of you, your bike, and gear to Seattle; two meals on Saturday and two on Sunday; snacks at designated break stops; group camping on Saturday night; and road crew support all along the way.
Where: The ride begins in Seattle at the University of Washington and ends in Portland, Oregon, at Holladay Park in NE Portland.
When: July 14 and 15, 2012, starting at 6AM on the 14th and ending around 4:30PM on the 15th -- but register for Ride4CAP today!
Goal: $110,000 in sponsorship, registrations, and funds raised, all to support HIV/AIDS prevention, education, support and stigma-reduction services.
Contact: Michael Sorensen, CAP Director of Development;
Direct Line: 503.278.3850.
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LGBTQ Meaningful Care Conference
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Meaningful Care Conference 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Lloyd Doubletree Hotel in Portland
Chaired by Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury, this year's conference will feature keynote speaker Shane Snowdon, founding Director of the UCSF Center for LGBT Health & Equity. This day-long conference was developed to share best practices and ensure cultural competency for those serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or questioning individuals. Continuing Education Units and Continuing Medical Education credits will be available for interested attendees.
Cascade AIDS Project is an integral member of the LGBTQ Health Coalition of the Columbia-Willamette. Recognizing the vital role that access to services plays in addressing HIV/AIDS within the LGBTQ community, CAP has committed staff to planning the conference, as well as sponsorship of the event. Cascade AIDS Project's mission to prevent HIV infections, support and empower people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS, and eliminate HIV/AIDS-related stigma is consistent with the objectives of this event, and we hope that you will join us in support of the 2012 Meaningful Care Conference.
For more information or to sponsor this event, please visit www.oregonlgbtqhealth.org.
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Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Health Fair
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Join A6 as we host the 2nd Annual "For Colored Girls" event on March 17th at Portland Community
 | | Aishah Shahidah Simmons |
College. A6, the African American AIDS Awareness Action Alliance, is a coalition of organizations, including Cascade AIDS Project, dedicated to addressing the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS within the African American community.
Thanks to funding made available by of the Office of Women's Health, we're thrilled to feature Keynote Speaker, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, at this year's event. Aishah is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, television and radio producer, published writer, international lecturer, and activist based in Philadelphia, PA.
As an incest and rape survivor, Aishah spent eleven years to produce write, and direct "NO! The Rape Documentary." This groundbreaking documentary explores the international reality of rape and other forms of sexual assault through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, activism and cultural work of African Americans.
The event will include free health screenings including tests for HIV, blood pressure, diabetes, and hearing exams. There will also be workshops with a focus on eliminating domestic violence and rape. Free backpacks will be available for boy and girls, as well as drawings for many other prizes. Workshops begin at 10:15am and the keynote is scheduled for 12:30pm.
Block your calendars now and join us for:
For Colored Girls: Women & Girls Health Fair
Theme: "NO to Rape and Domestic Violence"
March 17th, 9am - 4pm
Portland Community College
Student Center, 705 NE Killingsworth
For more information on the fair, please contact Maurice Evans at 503.278.3869.
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CAP Adds Three New Board Members
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Over the past 3 months, Cascade AIDS Project's (CAP) Board of Directors continues to strengthen its reach and expertise by adding three new Board members: Dr. Nancy Haigwood of OHSU, Robert Goman of NIKE, and local entrepreneur Kurt Beadell.
 Kurt Beadell is co-owner and creative director of Vibrant Table Catering & Events and has been an active contributor to Cascade AIDS Project and Our House for over 21 years. Since 1990, Kurt has held several roles on CAP's Art Auction Planning Committee, applying his expertise in the area of events, food and beverage management, and design to help raise valuable dollars at CAP's annual fundraising auction.
 Robert Goman, a California native, relocated to Portland in 2002 to continue his career with NIKE, Inc. A 15-year veteran of NIKE, Robert works on the Global Retail Brand Presentation team in product presentation, an area of expertise and passion he has worked in for over 20 years. He also serves as the chair of the LGBT & Friends Network at NIKE and has long enjoyed involvement within the Portland LGBT community with organizations like CAP, Basic Rights Oregon, Q Center & SMYRC.
 Dr. Nancy Haigwood heads up the Oregon National Primate Research Center (one of eight national centers) and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at OHSU. For more than 25 years, Nancy has dedicated considerable efforts to HIV/AIDS research in the areas of vaccines and mother-to-child transmission. She has worked in both academia and with pharmaceutical enterprises on HIV vaccine design and testing, and she currently leads a highly collaborative research group at OHSU exploring the role of antibodies in controlling HIV.
CAP is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors who represent both the diversity of who the agency serves and the expertise and networks needed to ensure CAP's continued success. Over 20% of the Board are individuals living with HIV and more than one-third of the Board come from communities of color. A complete list of Board members can be viewed here.
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Addition to CAP's Supportive Housing Program
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CAP's Supportive Housing Program is excited to announce the hire of Rob Smith as our Assistant Manager of Housing Services.
In this new role, Rob will be responsible for overseeing two Shelter Plus Care programs and the short-term rent assistance programs. He will also supervise three housing case workers and will work directly with clients enrolled in the Supportive Housing Program.
Rob has been with CAP since March 2011 and was employed as the Job Development Assistant for the Working Choices Program. He has a Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences and Arts and Letters with focuses in Psychology and Writing, along with a minor in Communications from Portland State University. Congratulations, Rob!
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Kids' Connection Holiday Celebrations
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Kids' Connection, CAP's program supporting children and families affected by HIV, provided three wonderful holiday events this year! The annual Kids' Connection Holiday Party was held on December 10th at Wilfs, who generously donated their beautifully decorated space as well as all the food, for the second year in a row!
Over 100 children, teens, parents and other family members attended and had a fantastic time making photo flip books and singing holidays tunes. Children in attendance also got to pick out a holiday present for the adults in their families. We'd like to extend our sincere gratitude to Wilfs for their ongoing and generous support, Fliptography for donating their time and materials, Dan'l B'loon for his amazing balloon creations and Rocky Rhodes for the ever-popular karaoke!
The holiday party was followed the next afternoon by a Kids' Connection trip to ZooZoo, a children's theater production, made possible by a generous donation of tickets by Imago Theater. The delightful all ages ZooZoo show was enjoyed by more than 30 Kids' Connection attendees, and was followed by lunch provided by Grand Central Bakery and children's workshops with the actors.
In addition, Kids' Connection teamed up with Partnership Project and Our House to organize the annual holiday gift giveaway, which provides parents/caregivers an opportunity to pick out presents for their children for the holidays. With presents provided by KGW's annual gift drive and other generous donors, this collaborative effort provided gifts for 35 families affected by HIV and AIDS. Families were also able to select from donated books, board games, craft supplies, stocking stuffers and clothing to round out a fabulous holiday giving season.
Thank you to all of our donors and partners who helped make this holiday season special for our Kids' Connection families!
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Across The Country & Around the World
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New Hope for a Cure -- Until recently, the possibility of a cure for AIDS seemed little more than wishful thinking. But the experiences of two patients now suggest to many scientists that it may be achievable. One man, the so-called Berlin patient, apparently has cleared his HIV infection, albeit by arduous bone marrow transplants. More recently, a 50-year-old man in Trenton underwent a far less difficult gene therapy procedure. While he was not cured, his body was able to briefly control the virus after he stopped taking the usual antiviral drugs.
Scientists modified the Trenton patient's own immune cells to make them resistant to infection by eliminating CCR5, a protein on the surface of immune cells that the HIV virus uses as an entry portal. One month later, as part of the experiment, the man stopped taking his antiviral drugs for 12 weeks. As expected, the amount of HIV in his blood shot up. But then it fell back to an undetectable level just before the end of the 12-week period. The patient's immune cell counts also shot up.
Dr. Pablo Tebas, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who treated the man, said, "It is only one individual, but it is a remarkable result." The gene therapy did not work so well for five other patients. Researchers hypothesize that the Trenton patient did better because he had an inherited mutation in one of his two CCR5 genes, making the job easier for the gene therapy.
Some scientists said this suggested that freeing as little as 10% of CD4 cells from infection might somehow allow the immune system to control the virus. Researchers are contemplating how to increase the percentage of CCR5-deficient cells in patients who lack the Trenton man's genetic mutation. Learn more.
Emergency Department-Based HIV Screening Program in the Deep South -- Residents of the deep south in the U.S., especially African Americans, continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. An Emergency Department (ED)-based HIV screening program is in place in the Deep South using the CDC's 2006 recommendations for rapid testing and opt-out consent.
From May 2008 to March 2010, patients presenting for medical care in the ED from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday were offered HIV screening. A total of 8,922 patients were approached, of whom 7,616 were tested (85.4% acceptance rate). 91% of the patients tested were African American. Having recently been tested for HIV was the most common reason for declining. Of those tested, 1.7% were confirmed HIV-positive; 95.2% testing positive were African American. 42% of patients who tested positive had CD4 counts low enough for an AIDS diagnosis.
"We have been able to successfully carry out an ED-based HIV screening program in a resource-poor urban teaching facility in the Deep South," the study concluded. "We define our success based on our relatively high test acceptance rate and high rate of attendance at first clinic visit. Our patient population has a relatively high undocumented HIV prevalence and are at advanced stage of disease at the time of diagnosis."
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Thank You Donors!
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Our work at Cascade AIDS Project is only possible thanks to the generous support of thousands of contributors. While we can't list all of them here, we're grateful for every donation of any size. Below, we highlight those gifts of over $1,000 received from October 27, 2011 to January 10, 2012:
Autzen Foundation
Central Drug
City of Portland
David Johnson Household
Farleigh Wada Witt
Frank Blanchard Household
Heather and Tod Killough Household
ICF Consulting Group, Inc.
Kaiser Permanente
LANpro Solutions LLC
MAC AIDS Fund
Mark Weinmeister Household
Nancy L. Haigwood and Andy McNiece Household
OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation
Out and About
Paskow Family Fund
Quinton Hawks and Michael Sauer Household
Robert Goman Household
Savoy Tavern
Stoel Rives LLP
Susan Svetkey and Stephen Houze Household
Thomas Bacon Household
Tuerff-Davis Enviromedia
Ty Stober and Dr. Lamar Bryant Household
U.S. Bank
Wells Fargo
Wilf's Restaurant
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