aids nb: 25 years serving the community

8/4/2019 AIDS NB: 25 Years Serving the Community

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Wrien and Researched

by Nicholas S. DoyleAIDS NB Volunteer

Commissioned by

AIDS New Brunswick,

in associaon with the

Public Health Agency of Canada.

First published in 2011

in Fredericton, New Brunswick.


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Early History

AIDS New Brunswick was started as a

kind of rebellion. People involved with

HIV in New Brunswick were told that the

government would only require a num-

ber to idenfy people who had tested

posive, and that only a persons doctor

would know if he or she had tested posi-

ve. Grace Gey was working as a publichealth nurse at the me, and received

reassurances from the chief medical

ocer that this was the case. However,

she subsequently learned at a medical

conference that district medical ocerswere going to doctors and collecng

names of people who had been infected

by the virus. It turned out that HIV/AIDS

had been added to the communicable

disease registry, which was reportableby name and not number, and that no

provisions had been made for conden-


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ality. Outraged by this, Grace Gey, whohad just completed her Masters thesis

on the health and wellness of gay men,

reached out to the gay community in or-

der to put a face

on the disease.She connected

with Hal Heinz.

It was around his

kitchen table in

1985 that he, JimGoltz, and Grace

Gey met and

decided to cre-

ate a non-prot

organizaon thatwould help those living with AIDS. They

called it AIDS New Brunswick because

they felt that there was a need for a pro-

vincial organizaon that would support

communies throughout New Bruns-

Execuve Directors

of AIDS NB:

Elaine SusseyClaude Olivier

Haley Flaro

Jo Lang

Nick Sco


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wick. Jim Goltz became the rst board

president. Anne Rowe was also instru-

mental in the founding of the organiza-

on. However, she was not ableto be part of the inial group, as she

was currently working as a civil servant

for the department of health. She was

aware of dierent AIDS groups spread-

ing around the country and she was

Nick Sco, Ted Gaudet, Steve Paerson, Elaine Sussey


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able to help the organizaon get fund-

ing. She later became the organizaons

rst secretary.

Grace Gey reminisces: From the very

beginning we were an advocacy group

that were there to kind of hold the gov-

ernments feet to the re. The group

immediately went to the chief medical

ocer in the province, Dr. Dave Walters,

who had made the promises concerningthe condenality of HIV tesng. He ex-

plained that the change was due to the

fact that they had to protect the blood

supply. However, he refused to admit

that they were linking the list to theblood donor list. Despite this, around

the province many dierent ERs were

becoming equipped with lists of people

who were known or suspected to have


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HIV/AIDS. The lack of condenality

was devastang to the community. Gay

rights were far behind at the me, and a

person could sll be red from their job

just for being gay. Because of this manypeople were refusing to be tested and

lived in fear. Anonymous tesng was be-

ing performed in Maine, and volunteers

from AIDS New Brunswick would take

people across the boarder to get tested.

From the beginning there was a great

emphasis on educang the community.

When the organizaon was founded, it

was known how HIV/AIDS was spread.

However, there was sll a lot of misin-

formaon concerning the subject. Grace

Gey, as a public health nurse, consid-

ered it vital that AIDS be discussed in a

scienc, non-dogmac way. In the ear-


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ly years, the organizaon did not have

the resources to make their own educa-

onal materials so they oen drew their

materials from Torontos organizaons.

They disseminated this informaonby going

to schools

and com-

munity cen-

tres as wellas sending

speakers out

to talk to

the public.

They specically targeted the gay com-

munity, as they were the most impact-

ed, and many gay bars were generous

enough to allow AIDS New Brunswick

volunteers to distribute informaon in

their establishments.

AIDS New Brunswick is

the community charity

of Aitken House at UNB


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In those early days everyone who

worked for the organizaon did so on a

volunteer basis. Almost immediately a

board was formed to oversee the orga-nizaon.

Every

task that

the orga-

nizaon

dealt

with also

had a

separate

com-

miee.

There

were commiees for educaon, advo-

cacy, networking, and so forth. These

commiees and the board were origi-

AIDS New Brunswick wasemployee of the year in

2010 for the Canadian Men-

tal Health Associaon for

the Fredericton/Oromocto

Region


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nally staed by the founding members,

but as more volunteers joined they ex-

panded to accommodate them. Within

a year, they developed the helpline. In

1988, the organizaon had receivedfederal funding and decided to hire an

execuve director. Elaine Sussey, a social

worker, was hired as the rst execuve

director. It was decided that the oce

needed a connual presence and ElaineSussey was instrumental in forming links

with other AIDS sociees across the

country and with the burgeoning PHA

community.


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Helpline

In October 1987, AIDS New Brunswick

began operang a helpline. It was origi-

nally started because of the high volume

of phone calls to the organizaon from

people not only looking for informaon

about AIDS, but also from people with

AIDS looking for help. It was decided

that AIDS New Brunswick needed to

operate a toll-free line in order to bet-

ter help their clientele, as many of them

lived throughout the province and many

lived below the poverty line. It was al-

most a year before AIDS New Bruns-wick was able to obtain the provincial

funding necessary for the helpline. The

kinds of calls that were received varied

greatly. Some people were only looking

for informaon, some were looking forcounseling, some were looking to vent,

and some people just wanted to connect


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with someone. In 1999 an enhanced da-

tabase for gathering informaon related

to HIV educaon and prevenon was

put into place. This system allowed for a

greater level of analysis to be done withthe helpline data.

Early on in its history, Grace Gey dis-

covered that the government wanted

to shut down the helpline and replaceit with

their own,

which

would be

staedby public

nurses.

She and

Elaine

Sussey

AIDS New Brunswickonce sharedoce space

withHealing Our Naons


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immediately aempted to contact the

health minister for a comment on the

situaon. However, the health minis-

ter refused to respond to their calls.

Gey then contacted local MLAs, whoclaimed not to know of any such thing.

The press at that point had caught wind

of the plan and started requesng in-

terviews. Gey and Sussey decided that

they would hold a press conference, butbefore they did so they contacted the

Premiers oce to explain that they had

been unable to contact the minister of

health, and that they had been contact-

ed by the press. Shortly aer the press

conference, Grace was called by the

minister of health, who wanted to meet

with them. When the health minister

was confronted with the accusaons, he

steadfastly denied it. However, within


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a month, Gey and Sussey were once

again called into the ministers oce.

They were treated

to ads for a toll-

free line that wasstaed by public

nurses. However,

at this point it was

only going to be

a research studyon the viability of

such a service, and the health minister

assured Grace that they would return

funding to AIDS New Brunswick helpline

aer the study was nished.

Although the funding for the helpline

was inially returned, the helpline was

shut down in favour of the government

run telecare. This was a major blow to

In 2003 the

helpline had 1,745

calls


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the organizaon,

which lost two

sta posions:

the Program

and EducaonCoordinators.

Both were spe-

cially trained to

deal with phone

calls from thehelpline. At the same me, the public

health nurses that were handling telec-

are were only prepared to discuss medi-

cal issues, and the counseling aspect of

the helpline was lost, to much public

dismay. Telecare also began forwarding

its AIDS related calls to AIDS New Bruns-

wick. AIDS New Brunswick started an

Infoline, which is for anyone who wants

to call in for informaon on the virus.

On June 26 ,1995 a tree

was planted at OdellParkcommemorat-

ing thosewho have

died fromHIV/AIDS


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Unfortunately, without the funding for

a social worker or councilor, the Infoline

is unable to help the community to the

same extent that the helpline did. The

loss of the helpline also had repercus-sions that echoed throughout the enre

organizaon. The loss of the Program

and Educaon Coordinators meant that

many of their responsibilies were shi-

ed on to other sta members. Also, theloss of the helpline ushered in a period

of frequent sta turnovers in the orga-

nizaon, which hindered its ability to

funcon at full capacity.


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In 1996 there was a schism between the

PHA community and AIDS New Bruns-

wick. It was over PHA emergency funds

that AIDS New Brunswick managed on

behalf of the PHA community. The PHA

community successfully convinced the

Public Health Agency of Canada to allow

them to take the special funding awayfrom AIDS New Brunswick. On top of

this, throughout the history of AIDS New

Brunswick there had always been a ten-

sion due to the allocaon of funds. AIDS

New Brunswick was founded to empha-size both the support of PHAs and to fo-

cus on prevenon and educaon. Many

PHAs felt that AIDS New Brunswick al-

located too much of its funds to preven-

on and educaon and not enough tohelping them. The PHA community then

created their own organizaon, which

they called The PHA Network of New

PHA Network of NB


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Brunswick. Unlike AIDS New Brunswick,

The PHA Network of New Brunswick

was staed enrely from PHAs from the

province. The Network was governed by

six boardmembers

and a

president,

and it

employedtwo sta

mem-

bers. Ted

Gaudet

was made

the rst

president

of the organizaon. They oered many

of the same services that AIDS New

Brunswick oered to the PHA commu-

Starng in 2008 the

public library in Fred-

ericton began housing

AIDS New Brunswicks

resource library materi-

als creang HIV/AIDS

secon that connues

to be updated yearly.


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nity, including counseling, a newsleer,

and gatherings. Because of this, AIDS

New Brunswick phased out many of its

PHA services, referring clients to the

Network for them. The helpline did con-nue to run, although it received calls

on a much less frequent basis.

Aer Ted Gaudet stepped down as pres-

ident, the Network experienced prob-

lems in leadership. The accountabilityof the Network was quesoned and it

lost much of its funding. Ted Gaudet

stepped in to try to save the Network,

but it was too late and it collapsed only

a few years aer its creaon. Aer the

Network collapsed, the PHA community

returned to AIDS New Brunswick, which

once again began running all of the PHA

services that had been deferred to the

Network. However, this was done on


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fewer resources as the funding from

the Public Health Agency of Canada was

never returned.. Although The PHA Net-

work of New Brunswick failed, it was a

triumphant show of power and commu-nity for PHAs living in New Brunswick.

It didnt last very long, but for me

it was the best show of empowering

a community to take acon againstsomething that we knew was essenal

for us, as a community. Ted Gaudet


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Arts Gala

The Art Gala was one of AIDS New

Brunswicks highest prole fundraisingevents. It spanned a decade, running

from 1990 unl the last one on Novem-

ber 20th 1999. It was started by a vol-

unteer, who had close es with the local

art community. She was able to convince

many arsts to donate their works for

the event. It was an aucon and a dance

with some food and entertainment. It

ran for several years before the energy

and expense of pung it on outweighed

the money raised from fundraising. Peo-

ple were starng to suspect that people

were looking for bargains more than

they were trying to help the organiza-

on. On top of this the arts community

was experiencing donor fague from theyearly event.


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Red Tie Affair

The Red Tie Aair is a major fundraising

event that was intended to be the suc-cessor to the

Art Gala. It

was started

by Anne

Moore, the

chair of the

funds de-

velopment

commiee,

in 2007. The previous year, AIDS New

Brunswick was forced to cancel its an-

nual fall forum for PHAs. The event was

created in order to make sure that the

organizaon would not need to cancel

the forum again. Because of this, all

proceeds from the Red Tie Aair go tothe PHA fund, which is used to nance

retreats and forums. At the rst Red Tie

Anne Moore and Tracy Rickards


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Aair, parcipants

would meet at

the Crowne Plaza

Hotel for hors

doeuvres, andthen go to one of

four parcipang

restaurants: Brew-

bakers, Crowne Plaza

Hotel, Racines, or The Blue Door. Aerdinner, the guests would return to the

Crowne Plaza for dessert and entertain-

ment. In subsequent years, the Red Tie

Aair lowered the amount of parcipat-

In past years, we focused more onthe dining experience. With the weather,

we didnt want to have people roaming

the streets in the dead of February, so

weve focused the event more around

the entertainment. - Nick Sco

In 2010, AIDS NBhad 3285 volun-

teer hours


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ing restaurant, unl the

fourth annual Red Tie

event was held enrely

at the Crowne Plaza.

The Red Tie Aair hadalways involved enter-

tainment, but the fourth

Red Tie Aair focused

more heavily on it as all

guests remained in thesame place the whole

night. This entertain-

ment included Steve Paerson and 80s

cover band Prey in Pink, both of which

were used heavily in the Aairs promo-

ons.

AIDS NB Cookbook


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The Needle Exchange was the brain

child of AIDS New Brunswick founder

Grace Gey and former Board PresidentMargaret Dykeman. It was formed in

1999. The Fredericton police force was

having problems with used syringes

being le out in public, especially

along the waterfront. The police thendecided that they would like to begin a

harm reducon campaign. Grace Gey,

who was watching the announcement

on television, immediately called the

police department and volunteered tocreate a harm reducon commiee.

The commiee was not under AIDS

New Brunswick, despite the fact that

several of its members sat on it. It took

about a year for the commiee to

get support from the province, create

a training procedure, and start the

Needle Exchange. Margaret Dykeman

Needle Exchange


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commented that [the needle exchange]

was an evoluon of where HIV was going

in the 90s-2000s. This was because drug

users were at a high risk of HIV infecon

due to the fact that many of them shared

needles.

Originally,

the Needle

Exchange

operatedout of the

ambulance

bay in the

Victoria

HealthCentre, and

was staed

by volunteers. However, problems arose

due to condenality. This was due to

the fact that the ambulance bay hadvery bright lights, and it was a struggle to

In 1999 the Needle Ex-

change took in over

3,000 used needles and

gave out over 1,600

clean needles


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keep them down so that people would

be more

likely to

come to the

exchange.

Eventually,due to a

decreasing

turnout, the

commiee

decided toplace the Needle Exchange under AIDS

New Brunswick and move it into their

oces. The reasoning behind this was

to have a higher level of condenality,

and to have a dedicated sta memberinvolved with it who could beer keep

track of the data in order to get beer

support from the province. The province

originally gave the Needle Exchange

supplies instead of direct funding.However, in 2008 the province decided

In 2010 the Needle Ex-change gave out 76, 644

needles and took in

44, 565. 367 clients used

the service 1,115 mes.


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to stop supplying the Needle Exchangeand instead began funding it so that the

Needle Exchange would be responsible

for its own sta and supply needs. This

led the organizaon to partner itself with

AIDS Saint John and SIDA AIDS Monctonfor its supply needs. The idea behind the

partnership was to get a beer price for

their supplies by ordering in bulk.

If this service didnt exist it would

be a terrible shame. People would startusing their old rigs and HIV and Hep C

would start to rise again. People come

here and they feel safe. this is a non-

judgmental space, and for many it is the

only one they have. I hope that this ser-vice never goes away

- Anonymous


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The Health and Wellness Commiee is

the PHA arm of AIDS New Brunswick. It

was originally called the PLWHIV/AIDSCommiee

of New

Brunswick,

but it

changedits name to

The Health

and Welfare

Commiee

of People Living with HIV and AIDSin New Brunswick unl 2009, when

it was changed again to simply The

Health and Wellness Commiee. The

organizaon of the commiee has

changed over the years. Originallythe PHA community would vote on

a steering commiee of six people

who essenally were The Health and

Health & Wellness

Committee

The Expenses of theArts Gala increased by

629.5 percent between

1990 and 1998


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Wellness Commiee. In me, it was

changed so that all PHAs who wanted

to be part of the commiee would be

part of it, and the steering commiee

would act as a coordinators of the

commiees acvies. The purpose ofthe commiee is to ensure that PHAs

have a voice in AIDS New Brunswick.

They are responsible for helping AIDS

New Brunswick organize PHA retreats,

forums and newsleer, as well assuggesng improvements to their

programs and suggesng new ones.

Its just a very commonsense way

for the community to come togetherand agree on something. Ted Gaudet


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The PHA Retreats and Forums are

some of the most important events that

AIDS New Brunswick does for the PHAcommunity. Originally,

they were funded by

Health Canada and

the (AIDS Community

Acon Program) ACAP.These organizaons

put a special emphasis

on skill building and

knowledge transfer,

so the bulk of theevents were spent

in seminars and presentaons. Aer

these organizaons stopped funding

the events, AIDS New Brunswick was

forced to nd other ways to fund them,such as the Red Tie Aair. The format

of the events is now far looser. There

is sll an emphasis on skill building,

PHA Retreats and

Forums

In 2000 AIDSNew Bruns-

wick distribut-

ed over 3,100

condoms, and

30,939 in 2010


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but now there is more me for PHAs to

network and talk to each other. As Ted

Gaudet points out, New Brunswick is

very rural, so how oen do you get to

chat with someone from Edmunston, or

Bathurst, or someone from St. Stephen?The retreats and forums are a very rare

opportunity for the PHA community to

come together, share informaon, and

grow as a community.

Last year when the forum was can-celled, that really hit me hard. Then

Jocelyn [Paul] died in March very

suddenly....I said this is enough. We

need to make sure that this does not

fail again this year, we really need to dosomething about this fall forum to make

it happen - Anne Moore


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AIDS Walk

The AIDS Walk started with the Cana-

dian AIDS Society (CAS). They were try-

ing to spread the AIDS Walk movement

across Canada to the local AIDS groups.

AIDS New Brunswick partnered with CAS

and Frederictons rst AIDS Walk was in

1993. Aer a period of me with CAS,

AIDS New Brunswick noced a sharp

decline in the parcipants of the AIDS

Walk. In order to combat this, AIDS New

Brunswick decided to partner with the

Stephen Lewis foundaon with the hope

that by partnering with a high prolefoundaon like Stephen Lewis, the AIDS

Walk would see a higher turnout. The

Stephen Lewis foundaon at the me

was being very heavily publicized for its

work with AIDS in Africa. Also during thisme, organizaon of the AIDS Walk shi-

ed more heavily to St. Thomas Univer-


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sity, as

main

propo-

nents

of part-

neringwith

Ste-

phen

Lewis

were closely aliated with the school.During its me being partnered with

the Stephen Lewis foundaon, the

AIDS Walk experienced unprecedented

popularity, and the event quickly grew

in size. As part of its partnership withStephen Lewis, half of the proceeds of

the march would go to the foundaon,

which in turn sent that money for aid

in Africa. This spulaon was a prob-

lem with many PHAs in the communi-

AIDS Walk


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ty, who thought that it would be beer

to have all of the money go to help

those locally instead of sending half

of it to Africa. At the same me, there

was cricism that the walk was no lon-ger about AIDS prevenon, and lacked

community involvement. This cricism

stemmed

from the fact

that the walk

had become

dominated

primar-

ily with

students,

and outside

community

involvement was dropping. Despite

students being a major target in AIDS

awareness and the large turnout that

they brought, many people in the

2006 a cookbook was

developed for the

PHA community. In

2010 a revised edion

came out.


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community felt that the AIDS Walk was

turning more into a student event than

a commu-

nity one.

Also, due

in part to

the fact

that it was

primarily

students

who par-

cipated,

the AIDS

Walk was

not making very much money for the

organizaon, which only further ex-acerbated the situaon with the PHA

community. In 2008, due to PHA ob-

jecons and disappoinng fundraising

returns, AIDS New Brunswick decided

to no longer partner with the Stephen

The Jocelyn Paul Me-

morial Skills Building

fund for PHAs was

started in 2004 in or-

der to allow clients toaend naonal skill

building events.


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Lewis foundaon,

which led to a falling

out with St. Thomas

the subsequent year.

The AIDS Walk was

relocated away from

the school. Aerwards

AIDS New Brunswick

went back to partner-

ing with CAS. Aer

ending the partnership

with Stephen Lewis, parcipaon and

publicity for the event dropped sig-

nicantly, especially among students.

Due to the dwindling parcipaon, the

AIDS Walk made about as much mon-ey for the organizaon as when it had

been partnered

with

Stephen Lewis.

Memorial Tree

in Odell Park


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Procalamation Scandal

In 1998, AIDS New Brunswick made local

headlines because of a scandal involv-

ing the local government and gay pride.

Mayor Brad Woodside was asked to

give a welcoming address to AIDS Walk

parcipants that year. He was unable

to aend due to family commitments,

so instead Councilor Joel Richardson

volunteered to parcipate and give the

address on behalf of the mayor. Prior

to this me, Mayor Woodside was very

hesitant to allow a proclamaon of gay

pride days in Fredericton and had beensteadfastly blocking the issue for a de-

cade. Two days before the AIDS Walk,

Councilor Richardson was quoted by the

Daily Gleaner in a story called Procla-

maon Debate Lives backing mayorWoodsides beliefs against a proclama-

on for gay pride days, and saying: Why


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couldnt a group like the Hells Angels,

why couldnt they have a Hells Angels

Day? Its their right and choice. Both

he and mayor Woodside wanted to

simply remove the instuon of proc-

lamaons altogether. AIDS New Bruns-

wick and

the gay

community

were ex-

tremely up-

set that the

councilor

had com-

pared gay

people to aknown criminal organizaon, and AIDS

New Brunswick asked the Councilor

not to aend the AIDS Walk. Despite

this, Councilor Richardson did aend

the AIDS Walk, but was not asked to

In 2010 Mayor Brad

Woodside aended

the Fredericton AIDS

Walk for the rst

me


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speak. He felt that he was being dis-

criminated against, and that his views

on the proclamaon and gay pride

had no bearing on his views on HIV/

AIDS and the AIDS Walk. He stated that

AIDS New Brunswick was being big-oted against heterosexual people. The

Execuve Director at the me, Elaine

Sussey, issued a statement to the press

in which she stated I would like to

emphacally state that HIV does notdiscriminate nor does AIDS New Bruns-

wick. Our reacon would have been

the same if discriminatory remarks

had been made toward any group we

serve. From the beginning, AIDS NewBrunswick, like all AIDS organizaons,

had a focus on gay men. The reason-

ing behind this is because they are at

the greatest risk. However, AIDS New

Brunswick was not founded to only


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serve the gay community. Jim Goltz,

the rst president of AIDS New

Brunswick, concerning the founding

of the organizaon, stated that we

decided to create a community-based

organizaon with representaon from

all corners of the community.

Councilor Richardson publicly

demanded an apology from the

organizaon, or he threatened that he

would le a human-rights complaint

against them because he was

discriminated against by not being

allowed to speak at the AIDS Walk.

Elaine Sussey stated to the press that

AIDS New Brunswick wouldnot apologize.


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Were not discriminang against him

in terms of providing him with any

kind of public service. If Richardson

has a need for AIDS educaon or sup-

port, the organizaon will be there

for him. But when it comes to eventsAIDS New Brunswick hosts, it can in-

vite whomever it likes to speak. Thats

not a public service. - Elaine Sussey


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World AIDS Day Breakfast

World AIDS Day has been commemorated

around the globe since 1988. In 2002 thethree New Brunswick AIDS organizaons

began hosng a breakfast on World AIDS

Day. This was started by the Execuve

Directors of each organizaon: Haley Flaro

from AIDS New Brunswick, Julie Dingwellfrom AIDS Saint John, and Debbie War-

ren from SIDA AIDS Moncton. When the

Lieutenant Governor Hermngilde Chais-

son became the honourary patron of the

New Brunswick AIDS organizaons, hehosted the event. The breakfast is by in-

vitaon only and it allows the organiza-

ons a chance to raise HIV/AIDS aware-

ness among policy makers. When Graydon

Nicholas became Lieutenant Governor,he connued being a patron for the local

AIDS organizaons.


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From an early me in AIDS New Bruns-

wick, the organizaon was involvedwith the North

of the prov-

ince, spe-

cically with

Bathurst. An

early board

member

headed up

a small vol-

unteer pres-

ence in the

area. The presence was eventually

lost, but in 2007 AIDS New Brunswick

received the funding to hire someone

part-me in order to open an oce

and work with the francophone com-

munity. An oce was established in

the Bathurst Youth Centre. In 2009,

Northern Expansion

2009 AIDS NewBrunswick received

the MAC AIDS Fund

Grant for the Posive

Nutrion Program


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AIDS New Brunswick was approached

by the government to work with the

francophone youth in the north of

the province. Because of this, AIDS

New Brunswick was able to hire an-

other part-me sta member in the

north, who would work primarily with

the youth. The rst hired was Tanya

Amberman. However, since receiv-

ing funding for another part-me

sta member, AIDS New Brunswick in

Bathurst has varied from having two

part-me sta members and one full-

me. In 2010, the oce was moved to

the Keystone Development building.


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Ted Gaudet is

AIDS New Bruns-

wicks longestserving member,

having joined in

1993, and along

with James Lord

Edwards is one ofthe major spokes-

persons for the

PHA community.

He was diagnosed

with HIV in Vancouver in 1988. Aerreturning to the Marimes, it was sug-

gested by his family that he contact

AIDS New Brunswick, which he joined

as a client. He became the chair of the

PHA Commiee the following year.

AIDS New Brunswick had frequently

had problems pung a face to the

virus because of the social sgma

Ted Gaudet

Ted Gaudent

and Elaine Sussey


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Page 48

involved in disclosing HIV status. In

1994, he went public and allowed AIDS

New Brunswick to use his face.

I discussed it with my family and

made the decision that the only way

to move forward is to start pung my

face to HIV, so I went public and had

CTV come and do a live interview and

I talked about being HIV posive and

The PHA Commiee.

He was employed on a short-term

contract to organize and coordinate a

fundraising event for AIDS New Bruns-

wicks 10th Anniversary in 1996. Alsoin 1996, the PHA community broke o

from AIDS New Brunswick and started

the PHA Network of New Brunswick.

Ted Gaudet acted as its rst president.

When the network broke up, Gaudet,


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along with the rest of the PHA commu-

nity returned to the organizaon. Hebecame a board member for the rst

me in 1999, and he has subsequently

sat on the board three more mes:

1994-5, 2002-03 and 2010-present.

Gaudet is currently acve in the PHA

community, acng as a spokesman for

AIDS New Brunswick and as the chair

of The Health

and Wellness

Commiee.

Ted Gaudets Prizes:

2002 Medal Recipient:Queens Jubilee Medal for

Community Work

2001 Medal Recipient:

UN Internaonal Year of theVolunteer: New Brunswick

2010 City of Fredericton

Unsung Hero Award


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This is dedicated to the memory of

those who have passed awayas a result of HIV/AIDS in

the last 25 years.

If your loved one passed away from this disease and

you would like AIDS NB to commemorate their life

in our newsletter, please contact ____________.

In Memorandum


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Page 51

Special Thanks

AIDS New Brunswick would like to

thank the following contributorsfor their assistance in assembling

this history project:

Alana LawsonNick Sco

Diedre Smith

Jennifer Dion

Mahew Smith

Ted Gaudet

Grace Gey

Margaret Dykeman

Gayle MacDonald

Haley FlaroJim Goltz

Samire Ismaili


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Page 52

The 25th anniversary history project is

meant to commemorate the rich past of

the organizaon and its contribuon to

the AIDS Movement. We wanted to raise

the prole of the organizaon and raise

awareness of what this organizaons vol-

unteers and sta have accomplished high-

lighng their value to the community.

Addionally, the history project tells a

story of struggle on mulple fronts, some-thing universal to not-for-prot organiza-

ons: ghng to survive in an unpredict-

able, occasionally hosle environment on

one front and ghng for social change in

order to serve community, on another.

A Final Word


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It is an opportunity for the organizaon

and the community to take stock of what

has been accomplished and to take note

of where the organizaon has come from

and how we want to handle things mov-

ing forward. It allows us to see who we

are. - Nick Sco


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The Sta of AIDS

New BrunswickFredericton Oce

Jennifer Dion, Matthew Smith, Nick Scott, and Diedre Smith

65 Brunswick Street

Fredericton, NBphone (506) 459-7518

aids nb: 25 years serving the community

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