<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=11sHLo_1H2iCzcD00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=11sHLo_1H2iCzcD00" width="1200" height="900" ></figure>Los Angeles hosted the 42nd annual AIDS Walk on Oct. 18, 2026, drawing thousands of walkers and bringing in over $850,000 this year alone, according to The Los Angeles Blade. AIDS and HIV have been taking lives since 1981 and a few years later, in 1985, the AIDS Walk began as a response.“To put it bluntly, a lot of people still commit suicide when they get the diagnosis, because they feel like it’s the end,” said Los Angeles resident Zachary Willmore, who lives with HIV. “The more I talk about it, I feel like the less it affects me, which is kind of an oxymoron, but I do feel like it has gotten better over the years.” Over the years, AIDS Walk participants raised over $92 million for non-profit AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), which provides and funds resources needed to care for Angelenos with the disease and create treatments and preventive measures intended to support communities and treat victims in need.Beyond fundraising, what keeps the community walking is about more than the money. Danielle Osby has been a donor and supporter of APLA Health for multiple decades and believes there is still a need for outreach and health education. “Letting people know about prevention, as well as the current and developing treatments, that’s still important,” Osby said. “There is that sense that you’re not alone … there are still people focused, and that kind of renews the energy that I think we all need to continue the fight.”Osby said has a cousin whose family was heavily involved in the church and was diagnosed with cancer. The church supported them by sending the family food and helping with tasks such as taking them to their treatments. The church “had a great deal of community and when he was diagnosed with cancer, they surrounded him in fellowship,” Osby said. “When they found out it was cancer because of AIDS, that changed everything. I didn’t understand or accept why that would change anything and that was the impetus to start volunteering.” The community has faced multitudes of negative stigmas since the 1980s and Osby noted that AIDS and HIV were not simply diseases: “It’s not just a medical condition, but also a social disease.” Countering the stigma from years past is the community that turns up year after year to support the cause, raising widespread awareness and normalizing a disease that decades later is no longer considered an issue on the fringes.The years-long commitment inspires people like a first-year volunteer for APLA and an LGBTQ ally, Amber Watkins.“I didn’t expect to see so many people who are this interactive, so passionate about this cause,” Watkins said.Watkins sums up how she feels experiencing the community’s involvement and the future she sees for it: “It’s just a very happy, hopeful feeling … Optimistic is the better word.”Community News produces stories about under-covered neighborhoods and small cities on the Eastside and South Los Angeles. Please email feedback, corrections and story tips to [email protected].</div></body>

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Los Angeles hosted the 42nd annual AIDS Walk on Oct. 18, 2026, drawing thousands of walkers and bringing in over $850,000 this year alone, according to The Los Angeles Blade. AIDS and HIV have been taking lives since 1981 and a few years later, in 1985, the AIDS Walk began as a response.

The community that keeps Los Angeles walking

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Los Angeles hosted the 42nd annual AIDS Walk on Oct. 18, 2026, drawing thousands of walkers and bringing in over $850,000 this year alone, according to The

The community that keeps Los Angeles walking

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