This year,
AIDS Walk San Francisco commemorates two decades of raising funds and awareness to fight the epidemic.
Among those who have walked the walk through the years is Jim Lowry, an internal auditor at UCSF for the past 18 years. He is now a member of the UCSF AIDS Walk Committee.
Lowry has participated in the walk through Golden Gate Park for many years -- the exact number of years, though, escapes his memory.
To help rally UCSF troops in the campus competition for this year's AIDS walk on Sunday, July 16, Lowry and Jack Webster have loaned their AIDS Walk T-shirt collection for a new display in the Medical Sciences lobby.
Webster, who retired last month from UCSF's Information Technology Services, is almost legendary for walking for the cause over many consecutive years and for being an avid fundraiser. Last year, Webster won the prize for raising the most money in the campus competition.
Together, Lowry and Webster have a nearly complete collection of T-shirts - including one depicting the UCSF-Stanford merger - which span more than a decade. Reflecting many themes, the T-shirts are now considered campus memorabilia. What this year's UCSF AIDS Walk T-shirt will look like is anybody's guess. The UCSF AIDS Walk Committee is sponsoring a T-shirt design contest. Entries are due this Friday, June 16.
See story here.
Since Lowry's first foray in the fundraiser during the late 1980s, he has walked nearly every year since.
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| Jim Lowry shows his collection of UCSF AIDS Walk T-shirts, which are now on display in the Medical Sciences lobby on the Parnassus campus. |
"I can remember the first time -- although I don't know the year -- because I was really out of shape and came very close to catching the Fulton bus for the return," Lowry recalls. "I started out with raising just a few hundred dollars per walk, but in about the mid-'90s, an old friend became my major donor and put me over $1,000. I've been in the $1,000-to-$2,000 range every walk since."
For Lowry, participating in the event is a personal crusade to help fight the disease.
"My initial motivation was because of the impact AIDS was having on almost everyone I knew and my desire to be a part of what was being done," he says. "While that motivation continues, the friend mentioned above does the walk with me every year and it's become a tradition."
Asked what he likes best about the annual trek, Lowry says, "One of the best parts is initially getting out to Sharon Meadow and being caught up in the spirit of the event with terrific people all around, and feeling really good about it. Finishing the walk feels pretty good, too."
Links:
AIDS Walk San Francisco
