Shannon Flynn
Equinox Staff
“By 2015 they want zero new cases [of AIDS] and zero discrimination,” Christine Smigel, a senior at Keene State College, said.
National AIDS Day is a national holiday on Dec. 1. This year World AIDS Day fell on a Saturday so the members of KSC’s Pride club chose to bring awareness to the holiday on Monday, Dec. 3.
According to Pride’s Vice President Julia Rasku, they chose to hold the main event Monday afternoon for more foot traffic.
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Avi Bacchiocchi, the president of Pride, said that the club celebrates World AIDS Day every year mostly to bring awareness to her fellow classmates seeing as many of them do not realize how the disease is transmitted.
Bacchiocchi said that the KSC student body does have a small population of students diagnosed with AIDS that reaches approximately 0.5 percent. “It is important for everyone to get tested because you can get AIDS from so many different things,” Bacchiocchi said.
AIDS was known to many as a sexually transmitted disease that only homosexual men contracted. However, it has become known that anyone can contract the AIDS virus.
“HIV/AIDS, similar to other STDs, they do not discriminate,” Tiffany Mathews, the coordinator for Wellness Education at KSC, said. One of the main attractions of the event was the rapid AIDS testing being held in the Madison Street Lounge of the Student Center. Although students can receive an AIDS test any day at the Health and Wellness Center, they take longer to get results. The tests available all year are done by drawing blood.
The rapid tests are taken by swabbing the inside of the mouth, which takes only 20 minutes to develop results. According to Mathews, the Health and Wellness Center ordered 75 tests at $45 each.
Approximately 65 percent of the tests ordered were used in the event, leaving a total of 27 tests unused.
Mathews said that everyone is supposed to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases every time they change sexual partners.
However, Mathews finds that many students are afraid to get tested. She said perhaps because of “the fear of the unknown.” “I’ve had some people in previous years come past and say, ‘Oh my god I wouldn’t want to know,’” Mathews said.
Regardless Mathews said she always encourages students to come back and bring a friend who doesn’t know. “We encourage people to do something that will benefit themselves,” Mathews said.
Someone who has returned for the rapid AIDS testing for the last four years is KSC senior Nicky Kondash. Kondash said she comes every year and tries to tell people to come but they usually “get reluctant.”
Last year, Kondash said she came alone to get tested when she met someone who was nervous to get himself tested for the first time. Eventually Kondash was able to comfort him and accompanied him to get his testing done.
“It’s just good to know and to get familiar with different tests because it shouldn’t be something you’re afraid of,” Kondash said.
Along with the rapid AIDS tests, the event included also free giveaways and snacks, and support from other organizations on campus. Not only did Pride hand out free t-shirts, but the club’s table included free red AIDS ribbons, a trivia game, and a bowl filled with free candy and condoms.
The Campus Ecology Club also had a table to support World AIDS day where KSC junior Velvet Young made recycled flannel ribbons. Lastly, the Health and Wellness Center had a table out with informational flyers and cups filled with freebies.
The main focus of the event was to spread the word about AIDS and encouraging students to get themselves tested.
“Anyone can be infected by the disease, so it is important to get tested,” Bacchiocchi said.
Shannon Flynn can be contacted at
sflynn@keene-equinox.com