The 19th annual Southern IL AIDS Walk will take place Saturday, April 2, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. at the Newman Catholic Student Center, 715 S. Washington Street, Carbondale. Registration begins at 10:00 a.m. and speakers will begin at 10:30 a.m.
Walkers will make home-made signs and walk from the Newman Center to the Civic Center and back. Donations from the event will benefit the Southern IL AIDS Holiday Project, and the purchase of grocery gift cards for low-income families impacted by HIV/AIDS in the 19 southern-most counties of Illinois.
At the event Patricia Paynter of Carmi will receive the Steven St. Julian HIV Leadership Award, for her years of leadership on HIV and AIDS in Southern Illinois. She coordinated a support group for HIV positive individuals in the 1990s in Carmi Illinois, worked to distribute condoms locally, helped deliver gifts for the Southern Illinois AIDS Holiday Project and has been a top fundraiser of the Southern Illinois AIDS Walk.
Ms. Paynter is a retired caseworker from the Illinois Department of Human Services and a retired organist from the Carmi St. Polycarp Catholic Church, and is a graduate of Southeastern Illinois College, the University of Evansville and Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
To donate to the Pat Paynter friends and family team, make an online donation at www.CarbondaleAIDSWalk.org or mail a check to AIDS Walk c/o Pat Paynter, 908 Oak Street Suite B, Carmi, IL 62821.
