The 2003 AIDS Walk participants braved the rain and mud of Flagstaff Hill as their welcome… The 2003 AIDS Walk participants braved the rain and mud of Flagstaff Hill as their welcome to the AIDS Walk and Community Day on Saturday, but they still fell about $100,000 short of their $200,000 goal.

The Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force celebrated its ninth annual AIDS Walk and first annual Community Day with red balloons – shaped like the signature AIDS ribbon – floating between white canopies and the Flagstaff Hill stage.

Jan Beatty, a Pitt poetry instructor, read her poem “Ravenous Blue” to honor her friend Scott Blathier, who died from an AIDS-related illness. “Ravenous Blue,” a sad but humorous tribute to Blathier, described Beatty’s misfortune with a hair dye named Ravenous Blue that Blaither applied to her hair.

Beatty’s first collection of poetry, “Mad River,” published in 1995, won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. Her chapbook, a small book of poems titled “Ravenous,” won the 1995 State Street Chapbook Prize.

Miss Eda Bagel, a self-proclaimed world-famous drag queen, was mistress of ceremonies. With a quick wit and super-fast costume changes, she entertained the volunteers between the 20 different performers’ acts.

The PATF introduced the first annual “Living” AIDS ribbon on Flagstaff Hill, to remember the lives lost to AIDS and to honor those living with the disease today. A moment of silence followed the living AIDS ribbon ceremony as a memorial to AIDS victims who have died.

Red balloons dotted the gray sky over Panther Hollow as KDKA television personality Lynn Hayes-Freeland climbed to the stage to lead the walkers in an aerobic stretching exercise before the five-mile trek through Oakland, Squirrel Hill and Shadyside. Hayes-Freeland and the Pittsburgh Penguins mascot, Iceburgh, led the one-mile family walk through Schenley Park.

The AIDS Walk is the signature fundraising event of the year to support the services offered by the PATF, according to Phil Parr, president of the PATF board. The government provides funding and grants for only half of the services needed to help the HIV/AIDS community in Pittsburgh.

The PATF fundraising events held throughout the year include “Red, Hot and Halloween,” the Pittsburgh Public Theatre benefit for PATF in March and the Sewickley Garden tour in late June.

Gina Focareta, communications director for the PATF, blamed the low turnout – 1,000 people – on Saturday’s bad weather. The PATF nevertheless collected $86,000 at the event.

The PATF has raised $1.2 million since 1995 to support their client services, which include prevention, education and outreach programs.

The Center for Disease Control estimates that 344,178 people are living with AIDS in the United States. Another 900,000 are HIV positive, and 250,000 of those people don’t know it.

The CDC estimates that 40,000 people will contract the HIV virus this year and 25 percent will be under the age of 25. Of those new cases, 75 percent will be minorities.