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Religion

AIDS affects us all

A nonprofit group wants everyone - yes, even churchgoers - to open their minds and hearts to a reality extending well beyond gay people.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published May 20, 2006

Ed Wardlow was a man with a big heart, his family said.

He was also "a kicker and a fighter and a doer,'' said his sister, April Wardlow. He was someone who could not stomach injustice, especially when it came to the treatment he received, she said.

Not the treatment from physicians who helped him fight his AIDS, but that of churches, clergy and members of the community who shied away from him.

When he died in 1998 at age 33, his sister searched for a way to continue his legacy.

April Wardlow, 35, found it by agreeing to become the executive director of the AIDS Partnership, a countywide ministry founded in Clearwater.

It is dedicated to helping anyone affected by the disease and promoting awareness. She took over the volunteer-driven organization in January.

It is now being run from a small house on the grounds of Good Samaritan Church at 6085 Park Blvd. in Pinellas Park. The quarters are provided rent free by the church pastor, the Rev. Susie Sherwood.

The nonprofit group was founded by a Clearwater woman, Mary Stephan, whose son, Fred, died of AIDS in 1993 at age 42.

Mary Stephan, who wrote a self-published book about her experience, titled God's Gifts in the Midst of AIDS, died of kidney failure in February at age 78.

In a 2001 interview with the St. Petersburg Times, she said that like many gays and AIDS sufferers, her son "felt like he wasn't accepted'' at church.

Her husband, Bill, also told the Times in 2001 that the main goal of the AIDS Partnership is to "get people to accept people with AIDS rather than reject them like they did in the Old Testament with the lepers.''

April Wardlow is trying hard to accomplish that goal.

But even today, she says she faces resistance from the religious community.

"As long as churches continue to believe that AIDS is a homosexual disease and that it can't or won't affect them, then this battle will continue,'' she said.

"The person next to you in the pew could have AIDS,'' she said, and you wouldn't know it.

Wardlow said the number of people who think they are not affected by the disease is "overwhelming.''

"Everybody is affected in one way or another,'' she said. "Globally, there are 42-million adults with HIV and 2.3-million children.''

Many of them are seniors.

"I'm aware it's becoming a crisis in the elderly population,'' said Joseph Miller, AIDS Partnership president. "Our goal is to partner with service organizations and houses of faith, and try to encourage a dialogue between people who are infected and affected by this pandemic.''

The organization hosts a monthly fellowship dinner, which attracts up to 80 people.

Wardlow said she is developing a program called Mission Against Transmission "to keep people who are infected from reinfecting themselves and their partners.''

She is also going to offer free, confidential swab tests for AIDS, and AIDS counseling.

"We'll also be going to health fairs and (community) events,'' Wardlow said. "Anyone who wants us to test them, we will.

"We can't just let this fight die off.''

Eileen Schulte can be reached at (727) 445-4153 or schulte@sptimes.com.

[Last modified May 20, 2006, 08:19:29]