Chorus brings ‘The Best of Times’
Published 6:00 am Wednesday, March 17, 2004
For as long as she can remember, AIDS has not been a quiet disease without a face. It has not been the unassuming, distant myth that for much of the 1980s many Americans only heard about in news reports and in public service announcements. AIDS hit home for Freeland resident Issy Olivia when it claimed the life of her younger brother, Paul Matteson, who in 1984 died of the disease at age 45.
Her loss, her pain still brings streams of tears, and she doesn’t want anyone to relive her family’s ordeal.
“There were mortuaries who
didn’t want the bodies of AIDS patients and churches who wouldn’t do the services,” she said.
When Paul first showed signs of the illness in late 1981, doctors didn’t know what was sucking life from her once active brother. At first they suspected salmonella, then were convinced it was a blood borne infection. There were no answers. There was no name at the time for what he had, and no one had yet uttered the words Human Immuno Virus or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Limited information was available about HIV and AIDS, and Olivia had to send news articles to her mother in Iowa who felt helpless. Paul was in and out of veteran’s hospitals that didn’t have the resources to help. In April of 1984, Olivia flew from the Northwest back home to Iowa to be with her brother in his final days.
His story is her driving force as the coordinator of the Whidbey AIDS Support Fund. On a corner of her home office desk sits a jar labeled “Hidden Strength” — nearby are pictures of Paul.
Like many early AIDS cases, doctors were unsure how Paul contracted the disease. Olivia said her family didn’t press questions of his personal life, but she does know that before he became ill he was injured in an auto accident and received several blood transfusions at a time blood was not screened. To Olivia it now doesn’t matter how he became infected, all that matters is how she and her family were affected.
“I learned that it doesn’t matter how people become infected. The fact is there’s no cure and we’re losing people — young, vibrant people — that’s where my compassion quotient increased and I began to look for ways to affect a change,” Olivia said.
This Sunday, the Seattle Men’s Chorus will sing in concert at Coupeville Performing Arts Center to benefit the Whidbey Island AIDS Support Fund.
The fund informally began in the late 1980s with a group of friends who gathered support for a mutual acquaintance with the disease. They soon found they could help others. Incorporated as a nonprofit organization in April 1992, Whidbey AIDS Support Fund has since maintained its mission to foster a caring, compassionate community providing services, advocacy and emergency financial assistance to people with HIV and AIDS in Island County.
All funds raised stay in the county and are considered “funds of last resort” for HIV and AIDS patients. In the last decade the organization has raised over $100,000 to help 80 clients who needed financial assistance.
Lea Kouba, HIV/AIDS project coordinator for the Island County Health Department, said contributing factors make it difficult for her office to assess the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS living in Island County and it is unknown how many are in need of help until they apply with the Health Department for services.
There are currently 22 HIV/AIDS patients receiving case management services in the county, but Kouba doesn’t see the numbers who seek service off-island, who don’t need financial assistance, and the countless others who go undiagnosed.
“A number of people don’t even know they are infected,” she said.
Because of medical costs many clients need help with food vouchers, telephone, gas and electric bills, car repairs, alternative medicines, medical co-payments, clothing, childcare, housing deposits and rent, and other day-to-day living expenses.
When AIDS first emerged, the cycle of the disease was roughly 18 months, said Olivia. With new drug cocktails and treatment methods created from a new understanding of the disease, patients can live with HIV multiple years without reaching the AIDS stage, she said.
“With early detection and the new regimen of drugs some patients are living 7-13 years longer than expected,” Olivia said.
The Whidbey AIDS Support Fund hopes to help patients keep a quality of life during that time, and seeks to fulfill their living needs.
“We help them deal with finding what services are available and teach them how to empower themselves and handle things themselves,” Olivia said.
On average, the fund supports 18-20 patients each year. The number changes as new cases are diagnosed, people move off island for treatment, or when people lose their battle with the disease. Three of WASF’s clients died this year. Its a painful but familiar occurrence to an AIDS community that faces death on a daily basis.
Regular social gatherings are also held to maintain support for the infected as well as the affected.
“It’s a function that didn’t exist before and something I wish I had,” Olivia said. “The families and the patients need to be connected with others, because this is a very isolating disease.”
There are a pool of roughly 350 volunteers on the mailing list who help with volunteer duties ranging from coordinating events, patient advocacy, legal services and acting as drivers. Volunteers and monetary support from the community are always in need as funding to help HIV and AIDS patients is shrinking, and has been for some time, according to Kouba.
That’s why fundraising events, such as the Seattle Men’s concert Sunday, a pie auction and dinner in May, a pancake breakfast at the Greenbank Farm in October and a candlelight vigil in December, are essential to Whidbey AIDS Support Fund’s existence.
Since its inception in 1979 with 22 singers, Seattle Men’ Chorus has grown into not only the largest gay men’s chorus in the world but also the largest community chorus of any kind in America. This anniversary year will see the return of a number of former singers, which will bring the chorus to a historic high of 250 voices. At the Coupeville show, expect over 125 men to sing selections from the chorus’ 25-year run and possibly even the group’s signature song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Before the chorus’ annual concert at Benaroya Hall, the group goes on a benefit tour to raise awareness and support for HIV and AIDS. The Whidbey concert will be without the group’s guest diva, but definitely without a cause.
“People need to know that AIDS is a part of our neighborhood and affects our neighbors,” Olivia said. “We hope to educate people of that fact.”
