AIDS Benefit

So this is an idea I've been kicking around for months, and never really had the guts to do anything about until recently. I told my idea to a friend, Stephanie, who, like me is a Microbiology student and, unlike me, is a natural-born organizer- she's got incredible organizational/planning skills. She was excited about the idea, and we want to try to make it happen.

We want to organize an AIDS-benefit art auction, where we'll auction off original pieces of art from BYU art students. Each piece of art should be a reaction to, or product of, the AIDS pandemic that has been sweeping the world for the last half century. We want to host the auction at a black-tie dinner event for BYU alumni. The proceeds from the art auction will go entirely to an AIDS charity foundation conducting research into finding effective treatments/cures for HIV/AIDS. The event is going to take a lot of work and a lot of time, but we both feel passionately about the topic. AIDS is a terrible disease afflicting millions of people worldwide, and as scientists/students of Microbiology, we've seen that charitable donations like the one this event could produce are essential for funding the research that is ultimately going to find an effective way of stopping the AIDS pandemic. The disease has killed an estimated 25 million people since being recognized as a disease in 1981; it's time to stop it.