
Los Angeles Times
June 3, 1997
by Jerry Hicks
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Getting Involved: Those figures for Sunday's 11th annual AIDS Walk in Irvine - 13,000 walkers and $700,000-plus raised - were both records, says Sally Jenkins of the AIDS Services Foundation of Orange Cuunty.
I found quite moving a recent piece in the foundation's newletter written by Mark Fliegler, owner of Paradise Printing of Los Flores, on why he helps out in the AIDS Walk. For three years, Fliegler and donated his time as well as provided brochures, posters and counter displays. He even designs the logo T-shirts sold for the cause. A few years ago, Fliegler wrote, he attended his class reunion in New Jersey. Though his own life has been wonderful since school - he and his wife, Arlene, have three healthy sons - he learned of tragedies among his former classmates, including one who had lost an 8-year-old son, Jason, to AIDS. Flying home, Fliegler says, "Arlene and I talked of how our perspective on life was somewhat naïve. We needed to get involved in more than just our lives.... I never knew Jason. But since that reunion, and since I have been involved with [the AIDS Walk], I look at my three boys differently. Every day." |