AIDS Walkers start fundraising campaign

In an effort to motivate people to give to their cause, the AIDS Action Committee and area companies kick-started fundraising for the 2001 AIDS Walk last night at the Crate ‘ Barrel furniture store on Boylston Street.

Representatives of various AIDS Walk sponsors attended the event, including Fleet, The Boston Globe and Monster.com.

Although walkers won’t hit the streets for another two months, Kim Fay, the assistant manager of Crate ‘ Barrel, said the event was “a way to get people excited about fundraising.”

According to Steve Coleman of the AIDS Action Committee, the June 3 walk consists of different teams marching together for the cause of researching AIDS medicine. Only two people are needed to form a team, but Coleman cited teams such as Casual Corners who walk yearly as a team of approximately 350.

Coleman himself is a team coordinator for Extra-Mile, an organization for teams who commit to raising $1,000 or more.

Various local organizations and people attended the event. Some of them, according to Coleman, “have lost children or lovers” and feel strongly about the cause.

LeeAnn Larson, Mrs. Tall Boston, representing the Boston Beanstalks Club, said she will march in memory of a friend from her childhood who passed away from AIDS. She is leading a team of six members, which she hopes to add to by the time of the march.

Steve Clarke, a member of AIDS Action, got involved this year after spending a year in Africa and seeing first-hand the effects of the widespread disease.

Joan Keanne, a representative of the AIDS Research Center, is involved with AIDS Action to get the hospitals of Boston to walk in the event “under one banner.”

This is Crate ‘ Barrel’s first year holding the event. According to Fay, Crate ‘ Barrel has had a team in the AIDS Walk representing all the stores in the Boston area for the last few years.

Crate ‘ Barrel donated 10 percent of sales after 6 p.m. to the AIDS Walk.