ALCC Executive Director Ann Hilton Fisher at the awards. Photo by Alena Scarver._____________
by Alena Scarver
The AIDS Legal Council of Chicago ( ALCC ) hosted the 2007 Advocates of the Year Awards on March 22 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago. This was the 13th annual awards ceremony that celebrated people and organizations who have dedicated their service to people who live with HIV/AIDS.
The evening began with the president of the ALCC, Jamal Edwards, welcoming the guests and explaining the mission of the organizations as well as the selection process of the honorees.
The 2007 honorees included: Dr. Beverly Sha, John Peller, Ida Byther-Smith, Sidney A. Thomas, Dance for Life and the Chicago Bar Foundation. These individuals and organizations have worked diligently raising funds, caring for patients with AIDS, establishing services agencies dedicated to people with HIV/AIDS, and working with state government officials.
'Patients show graciousness and courage and they show how much what we can accomplish if we work together,' said Sha, a physician at Rush University Medical Center, the recipient of the Outstanding Health Care Advocate Award.
Ida Byther-Smith, the recipient of the Outstanding Client Advocate award, has been featured in several publications. She has spoken out about HIV/AIDS in the African-American community and has opened housing for people leaving prison. In accepting the award, she credited many people who she felt also deserved the award.
'If the cure to AIDS was a clean glass of water, we still wouldn't have the cure for it,' said Ann Hilton Fisher, executive director of the ALCC, as she referred to the fact that many people throughout the world do not have access to clean drinking water.
Dance for Life, an organization founded in 1992 to promote dancing to raise the awareness of HIV/AIDS in Chicago received the Outstanding Philanthropic Advocate Award. Since its inception this organization has expanded to assist people living with HIV/AIDS.
Edwards concluded the ceremony by thanking everyone for their dedication in the fight against AIDS and the discrimination people face because of it.
'This work is invaluable and the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago [ dedicate ] their lives to doing this work,' Edwards said.