Red Ribbon Ball a Success!

EMAN would like to thank everyone who participated in the Red Ribbon Ball and helped to make it a success.  It was a banner year with the highest number of attendees and donations to date.

We would like to offer special thanks to chairperson Juanita Taylor, Carol Higgins-Taylor for the PSA and WABI for airing it, Joy Hollowell and Wayne Harvey for keeping things moving along smoothly, Special Event Center for donating the space, Brian Catell and the Jump City Jazz Band for keeping us all dancing, and, of course, YOU.  The folks who "partied with a purpose", gave items for the silent auction, and donated to the cause.  We couldn't have done it without you.

See you again next year!

Posted by Suze Howe on Wednesday, March 10th 2010 in EMAN News and Past events

Red Ribbon Ball - February 6th!

4th Annual Red Ribbon Ball

Saturday, February 6, 2010
7:00pm-Midnight

Spectacular Event Center
395 Griffin Road, Bangor

Featuring:
Brian Catell and the Jump City Jazz Band
Silent Auction
Hors D'oevres
Cash Bar

Tickets: $50.00 per person

Black Tie Optional

Tables for 8 people may be reserved, but all 8 tickets must be purchased at the time of, or prior to, making the reservation.

Also this year we have added the ability to purchase ticket gift certificates (click here for a sample).  Buy these for your friends and family and they can redeem them for tickets to the Red Ribbon Ball.  They make great holiday gifts and you would be supporting a great cause!

Also new this year, you can friend the Red Ribbon Ball on Facebook to stay up-to-date on current announcements.  While you're there, join the Red Ribbon Ball "event" (must be logged into Facebook to view) - let us know you're coming and see who else might be attending!

Tickets may be bought right on the main page of this site (via PayPal) or by contacting us 207-990-3626 or RRB@maineaidsnetwork.com.

See you at the Ball!

Posted by Suze Howe on Thursday, January 28th 2010 in EMAN News

Last Day to Get Red Ribbon Ball Tickets at the Lower Price!

Monday, January 25th is the last day to purchase tickets to the Red Ribbon Ball at the lower price of $40.00.  After that, the tickets go up to $50.00 per person, so buy your tickets today and save!

You don't want to miss this chance to chase away the winter chill, dance the night away, and have a fun time for a great cause.  Proceeds from the Red Ribbon Ball will go toward direct services for clients of Eastern Maine AIDS Network.  With an increasingly shaky funding situation due to the poor economy, fundraisers like this one are absolutely crucial to being able to provide these necessary services to our local community.

So join us at the Ball!  Tickets may be purchased right here on this website or by calling 990-3626.

Posted by Suze Howe on Saturday, January 23rd 2010 in EMAN News

Silent Auction Items Sneak Peek!

Only a little over a month until the Red Ribbon Ball!  We have been busy making preparations, including collecting items for the silent auction.  Here's a sneak peek at some of the items that will be featured:

Autographed Red Sox baseball memorabilia

Two Celtics Tickets

Ed Oechslie Oil Painting

Handmade African Basket and Ed Oechslie Watercolor

Four DisneyWorld Park Hopper Passes

Posted by Suze Howe on Friday, January 1st 2010 in EMAN News

MCF Grant Awarded to EMAN

On December 3, 2009, the Maine Community Foundation (MCF) approved a grant from the Maine Equity Fund of $7,500 toward LGBT social programming/service projects for youth at Eastern Maine AIDS Network.

EMAN is extremely grateful to the Directors of MCF for their continued support.

Posted by Suze Howe on Friday, December 4th 2009 in EMAN News

4th Annual Red Ribbon Ball Tickets On Sale Now!

Yes, it is that time again - Red Ribbon Ball time.  The committee has been busily making arrangements and preparations so this will be the best Ball ever!  Here are the details:

4th Annual Red Ribbon Ball

Saturday, February 6, 2010
7:00pm-Midnight

Spectacular Event Center
395 Griffin Road, Bangor

Featuring:
Brian Catell and the Jump City Jazz Band
Silent Auction
Hors D'oevres
Cash Bar

Tickets: $40.00 per person
(prior to 1/25/10, $50.00 pp after)

Black Tie Optional

Tables for 8 people may be reserved, but all 8 tickets must be purchased at the time of, or prior to, making the reservation.

Also this year we have added the ability to purchase ticket gift certificates (click here for a sample).  Buy these for your friends and family and they can redeem them for tickets to the Red Ribbon Ball.  They make great holiday gifts and you would be supporting a great cause!

Also new this year, you can friend the Red Ribbon Ball on Facebook to stay up-to-date on current announcements.  While you're there, join the Red Ribbon Ball "event" (must be logged into Facebook to view) - let us know you're coming and see who else might be attending!

Tickets may be bought right on the main page of this site (via PayPal) or by contacting us 207-990-3626 or RRB@maineaidsnetwork.com.

See you at the Ball!

Posted by Suze Howe on Tuesday, December 1st 2009 in EMAN News

EMAN in the News: "Maine Things Considered" - Maine's Needle Exchanges Threatened

Posted by Suze Howe on Monday, November 30th 2009 in EMAN News, National news, and EMAN in the media

December 1 - World AIDS Day Events

In observance of World AIDS Day on December 1, 2009, EMAN will be participating in day-long regional and state-wide events to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, and ask members of the community to join them in a day of support, remembrance and reflection.

Please join the HIV/AIDS community for an event with lawmakers, community leaders, and those affected by HIV in a call to action at the Maine State House. Looming state funding cuts are threatening our critical prevention, education, housing and care programs. We must show lawmakers that HIV/AIDS continues to affect thousands in Maine and cutting these programs will have very serious effects on the health and well-being of all Maine citizens.

Families, communities, states and nations must step up if we are to get ahead of this disease.  In Maine, more people than ever are living with HIV/AIDS and with new diagnoses on the rise and threats of even more funding cuts, we face even greater challenges in prevention, education, care and treatment.

Please join EMAN in recognizing those who have been affected, and unite to put a stop to the havoc it wreaks in our local and global community.  The World AIDS Day events on December 1st include:

10:30am to Noon       
Maine State House, Hall of Flags, Augusta
Panels from the AIDS Quilt and 1,300 individualized postcards of support from Mainers across the state will be on display; each postcard represents one person living with HIV/AIDS in the State of Maine. 

10:00am to 4:00pm   
University of Maine, Student Union, Orono
Panels from the AIDS Quilt will be on display to the public.

5:00pm                       
University of Maine, Totman Room, Student Union, Orono
Discussion and debrief of Medication for Change project where participants have had the chance to experience 24 hours in the life of a person with HIV/AIDS, complete with individual identities and a placebo pill regimen.  Will be followed by a candlelight vigil on the mall.

7:00pm                       
Old Town Methodist Church, 744 Stillwater Avenue, Old Town
Panels from the AIDS Quilt will be on display to the public.

7:00pm
First Universalist Church, 6 Easy Street, Pittsfield
Interfaith World AIDS Day service led by Rev. Margaret Beckman.

Posted by Suze Howe on Monday, November 30th 2009 in EMAN News and National news

EMAN in the NEW YORK TIMES - Bill Would Limit Needle Exchanges

BANGOR, Me. — For years, the location of this city’s needle exchange program, in a nondescript strip mall close to highways and bus lines, was seen as amajor asset.

But now, AIDS activists say, that very location could undermine what happens inside the exchange.

A bill working its way through Congress would lift a ban of more than 20 years on using federal money for needle exchange programs. But the bill would also ban federally financed exchanges from being within 1,000 feet of a school, park, library, college, video arcade or any place children might gather — a provision that would apply to a majority of the country’s approximately 200 exchanges.

“This 1,000-foot rule is simply instituting the ban in a different form,” said Rebecca Haag, executive director of the AIDS Action Council, an advocacy group based in Washington. “Clearly the intent of this rule is to nullify the lifting of the ban.”

Under a separate bill, all exchanges in Washington within the 1,000-foot perimeter would be barred from receiving city money as well as federal money.

“Let’s protect these kids,” said Representative Jack Kingston, Republican of Georgia, who introduced the Washington bill. “They don’t need to be playing kickball in the playground and seeing people lined up for needle exchange.”

Both bills have passed the House and a Senate subcommittee and await Senate action.

Advocates and organizations including the N.A.A.C.P. are lobbying Congress to kill the 1,000-foot provisions. The promise of federal money could not come at a better time, these officials say, as states are cutting their health and human services budgets and private donations are dropping precipitously. At least four needle exchanges have closed this year because of a lack of financing.

Many exchanges are run by organizations that provide broad-based health services like testing for the AIDShepatitis C, mental health counseling, medical referrals and condom distribution. Advocates worry that if needle exchanges disappear, drug users will lose access to those other services. virus and

The rule “is going to kill us,” said Ellis Poole, executive director of the Harm Reduction Center of Southern Oregon, which is 997 feet from a high school in Roseburg. The center runs a needle exchange and offers antidrug programs to high schools in the area. With donations plummeting, it has a $374,000 budget deficit for 2009. Mr. Poole said he worried that the center’s programs would be threatened if the bill passed.

“We could move a few feet down, but the building is more expensive at the other end,” Mr. Poole said. “I have to beg for money for computers. I have to ask people to come clean the carpet at no charge.”

Officials at exchanges in cities like Chicago, New York and Washington say there are few, if any, places that could house a needle exchange under the rule.

“I was thinking, ‘A thousand feet, how much is that?’ ” said Raquel Algarin, executive director of the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center in Manhattan. “And then I found myself thinking, ‘We’d probably be doing syringe exchange in the middle of the East River, and any exchange on the West Side would be in the Hudson River.’ How do you work that out?”

Many advocates also worry that smaller, rural exchanges, which lack the fund-raising abilities and infrastructure of many larger, urban exchanges, will be affected by the 1,000-foot rule.

In Maine, which officials say has one of the highest rates of prescription drug abuse per capita in the country and is grappling with a recent influx of heroin, AIDS activists worry that they will receive less money just as their client base is growing. The state’s four exchanges — in Augusta, Bangor, Ellsworth and Portland — would be ineligible for federal money.

“The federal funding would be key for us,” said Patricia A. Murphy, executive director of the Eastern Maine AIDS Network in downtown Bangor.

Upon entering the office, squeezed between a veterans center and a music store, drug users are escorted into a small room, where a trained staff member checks them in, using only first names and case numbers, and carefully counts their needles.

Under Maine law, drug users may receive one clean needle for every dirty one they turn in. The exchange offers users a variety of needle sizes, along with tourniquets, antiseptic ointment, condoms and information on safe needle use, and helps refer clients to clinics and treatment centers that deal with sexually transmitted diseases. The center also has a food bank, which clients are urged to use.

Those who have built a level of trust with Ms. Murphy and her staff send fellow drug users to the office. The number of users enrolled in the needle exchange here has doubled in the past year, while funding fell by about 15 percent.

The federal money, Ms. Murphy said, would allow the exchange to grow with the number of clients, many of whom come from rural northern and eastern Maine, and set up mobile needle exchange units in communities more than 100 miles from Bangor.

“This is a critical piece of harm reduction,” Ms. Murphy said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, intravenous drug use directly or indirectly accounts for about one-fifth of the nation’s 1.1 million H.I.V. cases, and needle exchanges are an effective way to stem the spread of infection. The World Health Organization said in a 2004 report that there was “compelling evidence” that increasing needle exchanges reduced H.I.V. transmission. It cited studies showing that the rate of infection dropped up to 18 percent in cities with an exchange.

Luke, a 30-year-old Bangor resident who did not want to give his last name, said he exchanged his needles, and sometimes those of his friends, about once a week. He said he had become addicted to Suboxone, a drug intended to treat opiate addiction that officials say more people are starting to abuse.

In a black hooded sweatshirt and red sneakers, Luke said he often also picked up condoms and guides on how to inject drugs more safely. He said he came to the facility because its location made it discreet and few people knew what it was.

A 23-year-old man who is addicted to heroin and exchanges needles at the Down East AIDS Network in Ellsworth called the 1,000-foot limit “ridiculous.” The man, who did not want to give his name because of his addiction, said he started using heroin eight years ago and exchanging needles four years ago. He said he often picked up needles he saw on the ground and brought them in for safe disposal.

“It’s a dangerous thing to do,” the man said of his heroin use, “but it’s best to take every precaution you can. If you’re going to do this stuff, you should do it right.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/health/policy/09needle.html?emc=eta1

Posted by Suze Howe on Monday, November 9th 2009 in EMAN News, National news, and EMAN in the media

EMAN in the News: United Way Campaign

United Way kicks off $2.5M campaign
Meg Haskell, Bangor Daily News

BANGOR, Maine — The racetrack at Bass Park was a sea of bright-colored banners and T-shirts at noon Thursday as the United Way of Eastern Maine kicked off its 2009 fundraising campaign. Teams from more than 50 area employers and participating agencies thronged the racetrack and the adjacent stands as reggae and other lively music set a party atmosphere.

United Way helps fund partnerships among local social service agencies aimed at improving health, education and employment options for Mainers.

“Our goal is to raise money to help more than 40,000 residents of eastern Maine,” said John Kuropchak, president of the United Way of Eastern Maine, which has headquarters in Bangor but serves individuals and families in Hancock, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Waldo and Washington counties. The overall goal of the campaign is $2.5 million, most of which will be raised from individual workers in the form of modest deductions from their weekly paychecks.

About 30 city of Bangor employees were there on their lunch breaks, marching around the track with Mayor Gerry Palmer setting the pace.

“We always have a good turnout every year,” Palmer said. The majority of the city’s approximately 400 employees will contribute to the campaign, he said.

Also on hand was a group of about a half-dozen employees from the Eastern Maine AIDS Network. Director Patsy Murphy said the grass-roots agency relies on a patchwork of funding sources to help meet the medical, educational and social needs of people with HIV and AIDS. Funds from United Way of Eastern Maine each year help pay for case management services, she said, to ensure that individuals take full advantage of services they are qualified for.

Other participating teams represented both donor and recipient agencies, including the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, Camden National Bank, the Good Samaritan Agency, the Girl Scouts of Maine, Hannaford, Webber Energy Fuels and many others.

Mike Openshaw of Lead Me Media in Brewer was there to support his fiancee, Lisa Sargent, who is a senior manager at the firm of Berry, Dunn, McNeil and Parker, an accounting firm in Bangor.

“She had no idea I was coming,” Openshaw said, holding a sign with Sargent’s name on it.

“This is the sixth year she’s been doing this with Berry, Dunn, McNeil and Parker,” he said, “I told her I’d come out and support her.”

The couple plans to marry on Oct. 10, 2010 — 10-10-10.

“She’s an accountant,” Openshaw said. “She had to pick that date.”

Local businesses have donated prizes to encourage regular payroll donations of as little as $2 a week to the United Way campaign.

Prizes include a 2009 Ford Focus donated by Darling’s, a Schwinn scooter from Stanley Scooters, 500 gallons of heating oil from R.H. Foster Energy and a $500 gift card from L.L. Bean.

On the Web: www.unitedwayem.org

Posted by Suze Howe on Friday, October 9th 2009 in EMAN News and EMAN in the media