Events
AIDS Community Resources has three main fundraising events that involve and benefit only our agency. AIDS Hike For Life is held on the last Sunday in April at Hamilton College in Clinton. The 5K walk/run starts at 11:00 a.m. and takes about an hour to complete. The event is fun; the campus is beautiful. Get involved and be part of something big!
100% of money raised at the AIDS Hike For Life stays in the Mohawk Valley for Adolescent Prevention Programs and Client Support Services.
AIDS Walk/Run is held on the first Sunday of June at Beaver Lake Nature Center in Baldwinsville. It is a 5K fundraising walk and a 10K fundraising run.
Click here for AIDS Walk/Run 10K Run Results
Click here for promotional commercial featuring Davis of the Real World
The event begins at 10:00 a.m. and takes about an hour to complete. The event is awesome; Beaver Lake Nature Center is gorgeous. Get involved and be part of AIDS Community Resources' biggest fundraising event!
100% of money raised at the AIDS Walk/Run stays in Central New York.
First Frost AIDS Walk at Thompson Park in Watertown is held the first Sunday after Columbus Day. Registration for the 5K fundraising walk/run begins at noon; the event starts at 1 p.m. The walk leads participants along a scenic path through The New York State Zoo at Thompson Park. All registered walkers receive free all-day admission to the zoo.
The event is fun for the entire family; the zoo is enchanting. Get involved and be part of something wild!
100% of money raised at the First Frost AIDS Walk stays in the North Country for Adolescent Prevention Programs and Client Support Services.
You can learn more about all three Walk/Runs at www.AIDSwalkcny.com
In addition, AIDS Community Resources has many happenings throughout its nine county service area each year, the work of a tremendously successful Special Events Department. If you want to help stage a top-notch fundraising event, come share your time and talents as a volunteer with ACR at one or more of our fundraising events, and you’ll be working with the pros.
Development offers many opportunities to learn, from initial planning stages of an event, through the follow-up stages of thank you notes and thank you parties. Volunteers help ACR by:
- Generating ideas for fundraising
- Distributing advertising materials
- Forming fundraising teams
- Working with Public Relations and Marketing
- Assisting with Corporate Solicitations and donations
- Coordinating setup and breakdown of event displays
- Acting as traffic directors and hosts
- Cleaning up the grounds when the event is done
ACR has a Special Events Committee that helps coordinate fundraising events. We welcome new members. For more information about volunteering with the Development Department, call 1.800.475.2430, or email us at events@aidscommunityresources.com
Heart to Heart Mixed Doubles Tennis Event
On the February weekend closest to Valentine’s Day AIDS Community Resources presents the annual Heart-to-Heart Mixed Doubles Tennis Event, offering players a weekend of tennis fun, fundraising and HIV/AIDS awareness.
The Heart-to-Heart can be serious business for serious players: the United States Tennis Association sanctions the Open division, allowing players from throughout the eastern United States to earn ranking points.
Never played tennis before? All you need to do is come dressed to play. We provide racquets, balls and instruction on the court. ACR helps players in all divisions find a tennis partner.
For more information or to register call 800.475.2430 or email events@aidscommunityresources.com
Syracuse Stage
Once each year ACR sells tickets to a dazzling Syracuse Stage performance that benefits AIDS Community Resources. January 28th, 2007 the Syracuse Stage production of “Spike Heels” was dedicated to ACR. 100% of the money raised at 
this dessert reception and performance supports ACR and its new LGBTQ Youth Center, which currently runs Support Groups for LGBTQ youth aged 13-22. The center offers tutoring, computer literacy, drop-in counseling, mentoring, and a peer-to-peer hotline.
Bowl-a-thon
Have fun, burn calories, and raise money for AIDS Community Resources and the Q Center. The annual Bowl-a-thon is at Bowl Mor Lanes in East Syracuse. Best costumes competition, lane decoration contests, raffles, door prizes, free food and drinks!
Teams must pre-register. Call 800.475.2430 or register by email at events@aidscommunityresources.com
Empire State AIDS Ride
Join an extraordinary group of people willing to dust off their bicycles and take volunteering to a new level by riding across New York State and raising money for HIV/AIDS. The third week of August, volunteer bicycle riders and their volunteer assistants team up for the physically demanding 560-mile Empire State AIDS Ride. It’s a fundraiser for AIDS Community Resources and other New York State AIDS agencies. The Ride begins Sunday morning at Niagara Falls and ends one week later in New York City. There are many opportunities, large and small, to assist. 
Riders are required to raise a minimum of $3500 to participate – sounds like a lot, but you’ll be amazed how much people will give when you say, “I am biking 560 miles.” Volunteers set up tents, cook, try to make life easy for riders and cheer them on. If you would like to be a member of the ACR Spokes Team contact us at events@aidscommunityresources.com or call 1.800.475.2430.
A Time to Remember
“A Time to Remember” is a lavish good-time fundraiser in the Mohawk Valley that evolves a little each year.
An art auction is a staple of the event; in 2006 more than 20 pieces by such well-known artists as Ed Christiana, Milton Bloch, Julie Waldas and Sunithi Bajekal, were auctioned to benefit AIDS Community Resources.
The location varies – in the past “A Time to Remember” has been held at such swanky sites as Sadaquada Golf Club and Fountain Elms Terrace at Munson-Williams-Proctor-Arts Institute.
The event is usually held in late summer, often as a garden party. The menu changes but the hors d’oeuvres are always scrumptious – catered by John Leech’s “A Catered Affair Consultants” and Patrick O’Connor.
If you would like to be part of “A Time to Remember” contact Wil at 800.475.2430 or email him: events@aidscommunityresources.com
Holiday Angels
At AIDS Community Resources we have a “Holiday Angel” program, where members of the community buy gifts for a designated ACR client and their family. The “Angels” are supplied with a client’s first name, and a list of “needs” rather than the typical Christmas “wish” list.
ACR has more than 400 clients, people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. Most come to our agency because they lack health insurance; sometimes they have no place to live, or money for medications. Add family members to our client roster, and almost a thousand people rely on ACR Angels for whatever holiday largesse comes their way.
Many schools participate in the program, collecting personal care items to add to the gifts. Church or office groups combine spending power to become Holiday Angels. Our incredibly generous donors sign on year after year, sometimes requesting the same family. If you would like to know more about the Holiday Angel program, call 1.800.475.2430. Or you can email us at events@aidscommunityresources.com
Started in 1988, World AIDS Day is about increasing awareness, education, and fighting prejudice. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.
AIDS Community Resources commemorates World AIDS Day on December 1st. Our service pays tribute to those who care for the infected, and those who educate youth and others to prevent the spread of HIV. The service sounds a warning for the future; every day sees 14,000 new cases of HIV worldwide.
AIDS Community Resources commemorates World AIDS Day on December 1st of every year with a service at Panasci Chapel at Le Moyne College. The service begins at 7:30 a.m. and lasts about thirty minutes. When December 1st occurs on Saturday or Sunday the time of the service may change.
Wear the ribbon!
The red ribbon is an international symbol of AIDS awareness that is worn by people all year round and particularly around World AIDS Day to demonstrate care and concern about HIV and AIDS, and to remind others of the need for their support and commitment. The red ribbon started as a "grass roots" effort, and as a result there is no official red ribbon, and many people make their own. It's easily done - just use some ordinary red ribbon and a safety pin! Or give AIDS Community Resources a call at 800.475.2430 and we’ll see that you get one.
We are energized every time someone in the community donates a part of their resources to support our efforts. We are encouraged by your commitment and generosity.