Whether their goals are to raise funds and awareness, to educate and provide care or to meet an emergent need, AIDS service organizations (ASOs) and HIV/AIDS advocates persevere—despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Even the fear and confusion surrounding the holiday surge of the omicron variant of the coronavirus couldn’t stand in the way of these heroes’ efforts to close out 2021 and kick off 2022 serving their communities.

Each year, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation organizes a Santa Skivvies Run (skivvies not pictured), a combination fun run and walk to raise money for health justice and lifesaving services. In December, community members and partners raised $73,000 (pictured above).

Birmingham’s AIDS Alabama delivered Christmas gifts to all 65 children in its housing programs as well as to the children in its Latinx Outreach Program.

AIDS Alabama delivering Christmas giftsAIDS Alabama/Instagram

Thanks to generous donations and sponsorships of children, Birmingham’s AIDS Alabama delivered Christmas gifts to all 65 children in its housing programs as well as to the children in its Latinx Outreach Program.

New York City–based GMHC staff and volunteers delivered special holiday meals to GMHC clients as well as knapsacks

New York City–based GMHC staff and volunteers delivered special holiday meals to GMHC clientsGMHC/Instagram

New York City–based GMHC staff and volunteers delivered special holiday meals to GMHC clients as well as knapsacks packed with warm socks, gloves, scarves and toiletries—the items most requested by people experiencing homelessness or unstable housing.

the LA-based Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Gilead Sciences and HIV is Not a Crime presented playwright and activist Lee Raines’s play Unjust,

ETA/Facebook

In December, the LA-based Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Gilead Sciences and HIV is Not a Crime presented playwright and activist Lee Raines’s play Unjust, which was followed by a panel discussion about the need to modernize unjust HIV criminalization laws.

Second Annual World AIDS Day Red Undie Run organized by Minnesota's Aliveness Center.

Second Annual World AIDS Day Red Undie Run organized by Minnesota’s Aliveness CenterAliveness Center/Instagram

Runners bared all on Minneapolis’s Stone Arch Bridge to fight stigma during the Second Annual World AIDS Day Red Undie Run organized by Minnesota’s Aliveness Center.

Southern Most AIDS/HIV Ride 18 awarded $205,208.18 to the Compass Center of Palm Beach County, Florida

Southern Most AIDS/HIV RidersCompass Center/Twitter

In January, the Southern Most AIDS/HIV Ride 18 awarded $205,208.18 to the Compass Center of Palm Beach County, Florida—just one of many ASOs benefiting from the nearly $1.23 million raised.

Reno’s Northern Nevada HOPES, which serves people with HIV, LGBTQ people, homeless people, women and children,

Northern Nevada Hope/Instagram

Reno’s Northern Nevada HOPES, which serves people with HIV, LGBTQ people, homeless people, women and children, collected over 500 pairs of socks at the start of the year for its residents and homeless patients.

The Hawai'i Health & Harm Reduction Center, which reduces the harm and fights the stigma of HIV

The Hawai’i Health & Harm Reduction Center team in actionHHRC/Instagram

The Hawai’i Health & Harm Reduction Center, which reduces the harm and fights the stigma of HIV, hepatitis, home-lessness, substance use and mental illness, meets people where they are. On Tuesdays, that means its street medicine team delivers services to residents of Honolulu’s Chinatown.

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