Letter From The Executive Director
August 2007
Dear Friends,
It’s been 19 years since we began and, as
of today, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has contributed more than $74
million (in hard cash) to AIDS and family service organizations and
individuals throughout the country: an
extraordinary legacy from our small and somewhat chaotic, hyper-emotional and
determined beginnings.
But, as we continue to embrace those
infected with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS, BC/EFA must expand its reach,
particularly within the entertainment industry, through the social services
provided by The Actors Fund to all of those
who first made, and have continued to make, our essential support for people
with AIDS possible.
Hence our expansion at The Actors Fund to
include The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative, The Al Hirschfeld Free
Clinic and the Stage Managers Project, a just recently inaugurated
program entitled The Dancers Resource (see page 12), as well as the Broadway
Flu Shot Initiative of Physician Volunteers for the Arts.
Meanwhile, AIDS is not over – it has
simply taken on many different faces.
If you look around Broadway today, there
is clearly more wealththan ever before. But behind the lights and beyond the
well-heeled crowds and tchotke-toting tourists there has, in fact, never been a
greater need for a sustained response to those in crisis.
Budgetary politics in Washington… the
continued unwillingness of the Federal Government to have a serious, rational
debate on a “national health care” plan…economic and job uncertainty (in spite
of record profits on Wall Street), and the ongoing quagmire overseas – all have
siphoned resources away from vital social programs and services, not just for
people with AIDS, but for hundreds of thousands of people living both in the
middle class and on the margins of American society.
So when people ask, “Why are you still
doing this?” or “Why so much?” a much simpler response exists than a
litany of facts about HIV/AIDS:
We do this because our own good fortune
leaves us with much for which to be grateful.
I specifically wanted this letter to rest
between these two rows of pictures. They
represent all that we do. The excitement
of our events, represented by the photos on the left – coupled, of course,
with the support offered by so many individuals, major donors and corporate
sponsors – allows us to provide the essential assistance represented by
these few photos on the right.
One could
not exist without the other. One would not exist if not for the other.
It is – in a few images – the sum total
of what we do. The how and the why.
Thank you for being an active part of
BC/EFA’s ongoing fundraising efforts and an essential partner in its
much-depended-upon grant-making mission.
Sincerely,
Tom Viola
Executive Director