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NEWS BRIEFS

Judith Dillard Extends

Mission to Africa

Judith Dillard returned recently from Mbabane, our sister city in Swaziland, where she represented Fort Worth in Walk the Nation. Participants walked all the way across Swaziland to publicize the country’s dire AIDS situation. Judith’s trip was sponsored by the More Life organization and Sister Cities. Watch for full coverage in our May issue.

2008 Joe’s Run a Success

This year’s 5K run/walk, with its move to the Near South, attracted 1,450 runners. The top winners were Louis Brasco, Top Male with a time of 16:48.7; Ruthie Tate, Top Female with a time of 20:35.9; Dave Groombridge, Top Male Master, with a time of 17:34.6; and Adelaide Leavens, Top Female Master, with a time of 22:27.5. The move to the Near Southside was a great success -- positive feedback all around, and everyone clearly having a fun time at the after-party on Magnolia Green.

More Life Partners: Boys &

Girls Club

In May the Community Arts Center will be brimming with AIDS-related exhibits, as part of More Life: The Art and Science of AIDS. One of the most compelling will feature more than 100 insightful, original works by children at the Greater Fort Worth Boys and Girls Clubs. Exhibits at the Community Arts Center will open on May 10 and will run Mondays through Fridays 9:00-5:00, Saturdays 10:00-5:00 and Sundays noon-5:00, through May 31.


	By reducing homelessness, substance abuse, crime, new HIV infections, and the demand for publicly funded medical care, Samaritan House makes Fort Worth a better place for everyone!

Samaritan House News April 2008

Letter from the President

More Life takes on a life of its own

Three More Life Early Birds

The man with the plan

Conclusion

Letter from the President

Even though we just finished Joe’s Run, our community-wide 5K walk/run, we’re hitting the ground running again in April. Thanks so much to the hundreds of volunteers and thousands of participants who made Joe’s Run such a success; but don’t get too comfortable, because More Life, a collaboration with other AIDS Service Organizations and the Fort Worth Opera, is just around the corner!

The More Life festival is a four-weeks-long series of events, involving dozens of community service, arts and science organizations, aimed at helping raise awareness about the current state of HIV in our area. Although the official kickoff for More Life is in May, there are Early Bird events taking place in just a couple of weeks. Read more below to get involved. Also, take a moment to read a story about Aaron, our staff member who coordinates events like Joe’s Run. See what makes him dare to take on such a daunting task!

More Life takes on a life of its own

Collaboration on a community-wide project has long been a dream of Fort Worth’s AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs), but no one could have imagined what a powerful team those collaborators have turned out to be. AIDS Outreach Center, Samaritan House and Tarrant County AIDS Interfaith Network,working with the Fort Worth Opera, have created a first-ever community-wide arts and education initiative to promote AIDS awareness and prevention.

About a year ago, when the Fort Worth Opera came to Samaritan House to propose a modest educational adjunct to the May 2008 production of the opera version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America, Samaritan House had a more ambitious counterproposal: Partner with other ASOs and the Opera to organize a month-long festival involving arts, civic and educational organizations, that would reach all segments of the community with information about the AIDS epidemic.

The partners formed a steering committee to oversee production of More Life: The Art and Science of AIDS, a month-long festival of arts and educational events spread across Tarrant County, and moved quickly to hire organizational consultant Jan Titsworth to coordinate the project. When non-profit consultant Cindy Boyd volunteered her services to manage programming, the basic team was ready to roll.

And roll it did. “We now have 45 community partners,” says Titsworth, “including arts, science, educational and municipal organizations.

Jan Titsworth, Project Manager

Combined, these partners will produce a total of 60 exhibits, events or performances during the course of the More Life Festival. Pretty amazing!”

Participating organizations have scheduled events from early May to early June, during the time the Opera will present Angels in America at Scott Theater in the Community Arts Center (CAC). The galleries at CAC will be full of AIDS-related art and educational exhibits, anchored by The Face of AIDS, a dynamic touring photographic exhibit mounted by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and brought to Fort Worth by AOC’s Allan Gould. Scott and the smaller Sanders Theater will bustle with productions by local theater and entertainment groups on nights and afternoons when the opera is not on. Musicians will perform on the CAC verandah.

TCC Northwest Campus panel on AIDS. From left, Sue Mahoney, Samaritan House; Ted Lovato, Samaritan House; Derek Robertson, AIDS Outreach Center; Joe Brown, Texas Wesleyan; and
Memie Hardie, HELP.

More Life also will spill over into the community at large, with events at venues as diverse as the Fort Worth Library, Jubilee Theatre, the Fort Worth Modern, TCU, and library branches and community centers throughout the city. One of the primary goals of the project is to reach into every neighborhood and demographic in the city, especially those who are at high risk and/or who have had fewer opportunities to learn about the AIDS epidemic.

Events aimed at children, teens and young adults will include a performance by the Mariachi Program of J.P. Elder Middle School, An Evening of Poetry and the Spoken Word by the Fort Worth Poetry Slams, an art project conducted by Fort Worth Independent School District, and publication of a children’s book sponsored by the Fort Worth Public Library Foundation. TCU, TCC Northwest Campus and Texas Wesleyan will involve college students in the project. Jubilee Theatre and Teatro de la Rosa will present performances of special interest to the African American and Latino communities.

Though Boyd describes the recruitment process as an easy sell, noting, “Everyone in town was dying to be part of this project,” putting More Life together has required both brainpower and elbow grease from everyone involved. The other essential ingredient has been the civic spirit for which Fort Worth is famous. Leadership Fort Worth has taken on the task of involving community leaders, and Congresswoman Kay Granger will serve as Honorary Chair for the More Life opening gala. Tremendous credit is due to the Fort Worth community for recognizing the importance of educating all our citizens about the urgent need to address the AIDS epidemic.

Watch the May issue for a complete calendar of More Life events, and in the meantime visit www.morelifetexas.com for more details about the dozens of upcoming events.

Three More Life Early Birds

Bob Ray Sanders

The first of two Town Hall meetings takes place April 9 at 7 p.m. in the Dee Kelly Center on the TCU campus. The event, moderated by Bob Ray Sanders, is free and open to the public. The second town hall gathering will take place on May 21. The goal of these meetings is to generate awareness among community members about public health issues associated with HIV/AIDS in Tarrant County. Also on the program are discussions about how the face of HIV/AIDS has changed, and how we begin to eliminate stigma and reduce infection rates.

A second “Early Bird” offering, Dance TCU’s Senior Recitals, themed around HIV/AIDS, will be presented on the TCU campus at 7:30 p.m., April 23-26.

On April 15, the More Life Rally: A Community Call to Action will give community leaders a sneak preview of the festival. The goal of the rally is to introduce leaders from city, civic, business and faith-based organizations to the message behind More Life, let them “sample” a variety of the artistic offerings that will be part of the festival, and explain to them why we need their help to champion this important outreach effort within their circle of influence.

A project group from the current Leadership Fort Worth class conceived the idea of the rally and has been working on a volunteer basis to make it a success. Leadership Fort Worth is a community leadership development program that seeks to improve the quality of volunteers involved in community affairs. “The energy of the Leadership Fort Worth project team is invigorating,” notes Jan Titsworth, Project Manager for More Life. “More Life is gaining more and more momentum, and the rally will take that energy farther into the community.”

The man with the plan

Aaron Siegel

Over the past sixteen years, Samaritan House has grown from serving a handful of HIV-positive residents to housing and equipping hundreds of families every year for lives of health, happiness and independence. Meanwhile, public funds become increasingly scarce, placing a growing burden on the organization to raise support at the local level.

That’s where Aaron Siegel, Samaritan House’s Event Coordinator, steps in. As a member of the organization’s development team, he fulfills a

variety of responsibilities aimed not only at raising funds in the short-term but also at extending Sam House’s reach into the community for the long-term.

Siegel was introduced to Samaritan House by a friend, and after an initial meeting with President and CEO Steve Dutton, he came on as a consultant. "After a few months I liked it so much I stayed as a full-time employee," he says. "I liked the environment, the folks who were already working here and the opportunity to do something worthwhile."

Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, the birthplace of his two sons, Siegel worked for many years in the retail furniture industry before moving to Texas in 1979. He went into business for himself as a recruiter in the computer industry, and by 1990 started looking for more volunteering opportunities. Though he still volunteers at a number of the same organizations where he began eighteen years ago, he holds a special place in his heart for the mission and residents of Samaritan House.

"I can only watch in awe as some of these individuals struggle with specific demons," says Siegel, "and come out the other side so positive and so able to turn their lives around. It is a pleasure to be a little part of their story."

One of Siegel’s biggest challenges is coordinating Joe’s Run – formerly Run to Joe’s – a 5K walk/run benefitting Samaritan House residents. Though the most obvious adjustment this year is moving the race from the north side to the Near Southside (the historic medical district), nearer Samaritan House, he notes that it’s almost like starting from scratch with a brand-new event.

"More or less, we had to throw away the old planning book and rewrite it," he says. "This year started by developing a whole new race course and meeting all the businesses along the course," he explains. "Getting a bunch of new eateries to come out at 7:30 in the morning to be part of the event is no small challenge." Most of the logistics have been reworked as well, from figuring out how many volunteers are needed to how many police officers are required, along with organizational issues such as registration locations and after-party sites.

Other events on Siegel’s plate include managing the production schedule for Sam House’s monthly e-newsletter and spearheading a major overhaul of the web site later this year. Though the days tend to be pressure-packed and often unpredictable, Siegel sees the positive impact of his work for the Samaritan House community as its own reward.

"I just enjoy the opportunity to make a difference," he says.

Conclusion

If you haven’t joined us yet for a free SamariTour, check out the calendar on our website for the next upcoming events. We’d love to show you around Samaritan House and the Villages and share some of our residents’ success stories with you. Come join us!