25 Stories: Colin Hammar

Many people in Colin’s generation haven’t lost friends or family to HIV thanks to new treatment options that significantly prolong life. “That’s going to be one of the changing factors of the younger generation born in the mid-80s and onward.” The sociology grad student thinks that this, coupled with the fear and stigma associated with the disease, has made many people distance themselves from the issue.

Colin also feels that there may be a cultural HIV white-washing. Many people perceive HIV/AIDS as a gay disease; that stigma still exists, though the most affected populations are changing. HIV is often introduced as an STD like any other, and Colin is frustrated that many schools do not teach that some genders, sexualities, and demographics are more at-risk. Often, the social history isn’t taught until college. This doubled-edged sword means that all populations are reached, but at-risk populations are losing out by not highlighting the history or reality.

It’s these attitudes and beliefs that inspired Colin to make a difference and become active on college campuses; he often brings in speakers and does educational prevention outreach.

“My work in my graduate program and my research has let me grab my own personal experiences…to be the voice and perspective [for the disease], which is traditionally left out in a lot of academic circles.”




Share your story with us! Leave a comment or email Brenden Hudson at bhudson@damien.org.

25 Stories: Elaine Cox

Dr. Elaine Cox has been an HIV care provider for 16 years, specializing in pediatric HIV. She only planned to do it for a short time, but it quickly became her life’s work. She remembers when even doctors were afraid of people with HIV 16 years ago, and how end of life care was the only option.

“Our biggest sadness is when our patients leave pediatric care and go to the adult side – which is a great problem to have!” Dr. Cox says, smiling. With the current medications on the market for HIV, these children can go on to have a long, healthy life.

But Dr. Cox notes that though HIV is a medical disease, there’s an entire social aspect to it. “We do still see some bullying and ostracizing. We see some families where, if a family’s [HIV] status gets out, an apartment is suddenly no longer available.”

Despite the hardships, Dr. Cox knows that there’s hope. Her patients are going to college, getting scholarships, and doing very well. “They’re overcoming all sorts of obstacles!”

Like her patients, Dr. Cox is also conquering hurdles; to combat stigma and normalize HIV testing, she helped start a legislative effort to get prenatal HIV screenings for pregnant mothers. It passed.

Pausing to reflect on her work in the HIV community, she remembers thinking that being in the HIV field in the 1990s was just a phase in her career. “Sometimes, you fall into the best of things without ever knowing it.”


Share your story with us! Leave a comment or email Brenden Hudson at bhudson@damien.org.

Dining Out for Life Ambassadors

Dining Out for Life relies heavily on its Ambassadors - volunteers stationed at one of our many wonderful restaurants! It is important that every Ambassador attend a training - even if you've been an Ambassador before. We have some new, exciting parts of this event, and we don't want our Ambassadors to miss out! If you would like to help out with the largest restaurant event in Indianapolis, come to a training on:

Saturday, March 31 from 9-11

Tuesday, April 3 from 5:30 - 7:30

Tuesday, April 10 from 1-3 

Tuesday, April 10 from 5:30-7:30

Please RSVP by calling Traci at 317-632-0123 x2637or by emailing her at tjohnson@damien.org

25 Stories: Rob Bullock

Rob Bullock was a social security adjudicator in the early 90s; at the time, The Damien Center had just started. There were no social security benefits for people with HIV, so many people were denied.

Rob knew that people were dying, and that they needed care. He began looking through the 5,000 page operations manual to try and find the secondary diseases that would help get people living with HIV the benefits they needed.

Through his hard work, Rob earned a reputation in the community as an advocate for people with HIV. He was soon asked to work for The Damien Center in 1992, where he oversaw most client-related activities. School systems were under pressure from parents who did not want their children receiving safer sex messaging; instead, Rob and The Damien Center were asked to provide presentations so that the students would get the information that would one day save their lives.

Rob remembered how there was (and still is) cultural pressure for men in the Midwest to get married and have children. Many married men would contract HIV from discreet sex with other men, and then have unprotected sex with their wives – thus passing on the disease.

It’s much better now that HIV isn’t a death sentence, but it’s still out there. “I don’t think we hear the HIV message as much as we used to because it’s not as imminent,” said Rob. “People aren’t dying as quickly.”


Share your story with us! Leave a comment or email Brenden Hudson at bhudson@damien.org.

25 Stories: Evelyn Myers

Rev. Earl Connor retired in 1986, but Evelyn knew he was working on something from the hints he dropped. “AIDS.” “AZT.” “Test positive.” When Earl asked Evelyn about properties for sale, she had no idea that she was about to help found what would become Indiana’s oldest and largest HIV/AIDS service organization.

Earl opened The Damien Center in June 1987 in an empty archdiocese building. “When we started, the phone never rang. Nobody was there, and nobody knew much about us,” said Evelyn. To help spread the word, the Center hosted an open house; because of the stigma surrounding the disease at the time, they had no idea if they would be picketed or if anybody would come.

After the open house, Evelyn saw the cavernous building grow into a bustling place with furniture, volunteers, and clients, led by the hardworking reverend. Together with a team of volunteers and a handful of staff, The Damien Center became the first truly coordinated effort to care for people who had contracted HIV.

Apart from The Damien Center, Evelyn was a quiet champion for HIV, in her own humble way; when the disease was new, she noticed that people would avoid those living with HIV in church. To combat the ignorance, she decided to lead by example and be the first to take the Eucharist after people with HIV. “I would like you to think that I knew I was on the cutting edge and doing something that was unique,” she said. “But I didn’t. I was just helping out a friend.”


Share your story with us! Leave a comment or email Brenden Hudson at bhudson@damien.org.

The Damien Center Honored with Grant Awards

The Damien Center relies on funding from many sources to provide the high quality programs and services that help us meet our mission.  In recent months we have received several grants from private foundations that will help us continue to improve our services and meet the needs of our clients. We have recently received notification of funding awards for three now positions that will expand our services to our HIV clients:

• Marion County Public Health Department has awarded The Damien Center through Ryan White funding a full-time Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counselor as well as a full-time Medical Case Manager.
• MAC AIDS Fund has awarded The Damien Center with a part-time Housing Case-manager.

In addition to these exciting new positions, The Damien Center was recently awarded the following grants:

• The Indianapolis Foundation, a CICF affiliate:  $40,000 for general operating support
• Christ Church Cathedral:  $10,000 for general operating support
• The Realtor Foundation – $3,500 to provide one transitional housing unit for the transgender population
• Canfield Memorial Trust - $1,500 to support Kids Club programming

We are grateful to these funders for recognizing the importance of supporting HIV/AIDS programs in our community and for their confidence in The Damien Center’s ability to provide these services.  

HIV/AIDS Timeline

In June of 1981, five gay men were diagnosed with what we now know as AIDS. In celebration of the past 30 years of HIV/AIDS and the 25th anniversary since The Damien Center was founded, here’s a look at how far we've come:


• 1982: The disease is named AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; new cases of AIDS in infants are reported.

• 1983: Dr. Robert Gallo suggests that a retrovirus probably causes AIDS. The CDC identifies all major routes of transmission and rules out transmission by casual contact, air, water, food, or environmental factors.

• 1985: ELISA, the first commercial HIV blood test is licensed by the FDA. At least one case of HIV has been reported in every region of the world. Indiana teen Ryan White contracts AIDS due to a blood transfusion for his hemophilia and is refused entry into his middle school.

• 1986: The International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses declares that the virus causing AIDS will be known as HIV, or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The Surgeon General urges parents and schools to teach children about AIDS and condom use.

• 1987: The first drug antiretroviral drug treatment, AZT, is approved by the FDA. The FDA also approves the Western Blot Blood Test Kit, a more specific test for HIV antibodies. The Damien Center is founded.

• 1989: The number of AIDS cases in the United States reaches 100,000.

• 1990: The US Congress enacts the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, including people living with HIV/AIDS.

• 1991: Earvin “Magic” Johnson announces that he is HIV-positive.

• 1992: AIDS becomes the #1 cause of death for men ages 25-44.

• 1993: The CDC expands the definition of AIDS, declaring anybody with a CD4 count under 200 to have AIDS. Three new clinical indicators of AIDS are added.

• 1994: AIDS becomes the leading cause of death for all Americans 25-44. The FDA also approves an oral HIV test, the first non-blood-based antibody test for HIV.

• 1995: Olympic Diver Greg Louganis announces that he is HIV-positive. The FDA approves the first protease inhibitor, ushering an era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). 500,000 cases of HIV have been reported in the US.

• 1996: The number of new AIDS cases declines for the first time. It is no longer the leading cause of death for Americans 25-44, though it remains the leading cause for African Americans in that age group.

• 1997: HAART becomes the new standard of HIV care. AIDS-related deaths decline 47%, but drug resistance has become more common.

• 1998: The CDC issues the first national guidelines for antiretroviral therapy. The US Department of Health and Human Services determine that Needle Exchange Programs (NEDs) are effective and do not encourage the use of illicit drugs. The CDC reports that AIDS-mortality in African Americans are almost 10 times that of Whites.

• 1999: The CDC gives a new HIV case definition. The WHO announces that HIV is the fourth biggest killer worldwide, and the #1 killer in Africa. WHO estimates 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide, and 14 million have died of AIDS. VaxGen begin the first human vaccine trials in Thailand.


• 2000: The US declares HIV/AIDS as a threat to US national security.

• 2001: The US Health Resources and Services Administration begins to focus on individuals who are HIV+ but are not receiving services. The CDC announces a new plan to cut annual HIV infections in the US in half within five years.

• 2002: The FDA approves the first rapid HIV testing kit. Unlike other tests, this can be stored at room temperature and requires no specialized equipment, allowing for more widespread HIV testing. Worldwide, 10 million people 15-24 and 3 million children under 15 are living with HIV. 3.5 million new infections will occur in sub-Saharan Africa this year, and 2.4 million Africans will die of AIDS.

• 2003: The CDC estimates that 27,000 of the 40,000 new infections that occur each year are the result of transmission by individuals who do not know they are infected. VaxGen announces that its vaccine trial failed.

• 2004: The CDC approves the use of oral fluid samples with a rapid HIV diagnostic test kit that provides results in 20 minutes.

• 2006: The CDC revises HIV testing recommendations, advising routine HIV screening for all adults 13-64, with a yearly screening for those at high risk. The University of Chicago finds that medical circumcision reduces the risk of acquiring HIV by 53% during heterosexual intercourse.

• 2007: The CDC reports that over 565,000 people have died of AIDS in the US.

• 2008: The CDC releases new data for HIV in the US, suggesting that the incidence of HIV in the US is much higher than previously thought. (56,300 new infections per year vs. 40,000.) These new estimates are not an increase in HIV infections, but reflect a more accurate way of measuring new infections. A spearate analysis suggests that theannual number of new infections was never as low as 40,000, and that it has been relatively stable since the late 1990s.

• 2009: President Obama calls for the first National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the US. The CDC finds that Washington DC has a higher rate of HIV prevalence than West Africa. The FDA approves the 100th antiretroviral drug. President Obama modifies the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs.

• 2010: The US lifts the HIV travel and imigration ban and releases the first comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States. Antiretroviral-based vaginal microbicide is found to be safe and effective at reducing risks of new HIV infections in women by 39%; when used as directed, it ould reduce risks by 54%. The National Institute of Health announced that a daily dose of HIV drugs reduce the risk of HIV transmission in men who have sex with men by 44%.

• 2011: Public debate begins on whether the longstanding ban on transplants of HIV-infected organs should be dropped. The US Department of Health and Human Services launches a comprehensive response in the 12 jurisdictions with the highest AIDS burden.

The Season of Giving

Did you know that we're the largest and oldest HIV/AIDS service organization in Indiana? Here are ten reasons to give a little extra this holiday season:

YOU can help make a difference!
Make a donation at www.damien.org/donate

#10: You can help serve the most people infected and affected by HIV in Indiana. Last year, we helped 1,230 people with HIV/AIDS; this holiday season, we expect to serve nearly twice as many people in December as we did last year.

#9: You can help end hunger. People living with HIV need nutritious meals to help their immune system fight the disease. We gave out over 150,000 pounds of food through our pantry this year.

#8: You can help shelter people with HIV. Stable, affordable housing helps people with HIV stay on medication. We helped house 70 families in 2011.

#7: You can help prevent the spread of HIV. We provided more than 2,000 free and confidential HIV tests so far this year - up from last year's total of 1,533.

#6: You can help keep young people safe from the disease; individuals 20-24 account for the highest rates of new infections. We reached more than 700 young people with information on how HIV is transmitted and how to keep themselves safe this year, and we expect that number to double in 2012.

#5: You can help end stigma and discrimination. We provide legal services for people infected or affected by HIV with discrimination issues, living and legal wills, and various other civil legal matters.

#4: You can help people with HIV get jobs. As medications get better, more people with HIV are living healthy lives they didn’t expect to have; we teach skills that help them reenter the workforce.

#3: You can help formerly incarcerated individuals receive interventions that reduce substance abuse and other risky behaviors. We help these individuals keep themselves and others safe from HIV.

#2: You can help link people with HIV to health insurance that makes life-saving medication affordable.

#1: You can help us end HIV. We distribute more than 5,000 condoms every year; without a cure, condoms are one of the only sure-fire ways we can stop the spread of HIV. 

World AIDS Day - ten ways to get to zero!

HIV is a worldwide epidemic, and it’s affecting every part of our local community; in Indiana, there were 9,837 people living with HIV/AIDS in 2010. This year, World AIDS Day on December 1 is all about “Getting to Zero” – that is, zero HIV-related deaths, zero new infections, and zero stigma. Here are ten ways you can help observe World AIDS Day, make a difference, and help your community get to zero:

1. Talk about it openly and honestly. HIV isn’t something to be ashamed of, but there’s a lot of stigma surrounding the disease. Just being open to talking about it can make people less afraid and more proactive in protecting themselves and their loved ones.
2. Wear a condom. This is the best way of protecting yourself – and it can be the most fun! Ribbed, magnum, ultra-thin - there are hundreds of different kinds of condoms from which to choose, and there’s a perfect condom for every situation. Don’t forget about insertive/female condoms! Many public health, family planning, and HIV/AIDS service organizations give out quality condoms for free.
3. Get tested. Many people don’t show symptoms of HIV for 10 or more years; nation-wide, one in five people don’t know that they’re HIV+. The only way to know for sure is to get tested, and many places just need a swab – no blood necessary! Remember that getting tested means checking in to see if you’ve been doing a good job; testing doesn’t prevent the disease from happening. The Damien Center has free and confidential HIV, STD, and pregnancy testing. (www.damien.org)
4. Get involved. There’s dozens of events each year that you can participate in to raise awareness – and many are listed in your local community calendars! Some events, like Dining Out for Life, make it easy to participate. Many local businesses, like Just Pop In located in Broad Ripple and the airport, donate proceeds from sales year-round to local HIV/AIDS service organizations. (Just Pop In is helping The Damien Center get to zero on December 1 – check it out at justpopinonline.com!)
5. Educate yourself. Talk to your doctor or a local HIV/AIDS service organization to learn more about the disease. Know that it’s not transmitted through casual contact like hugging or coughing, but rather through an exchange of body fluids like semen, blood, vaginal fluid, or breast milk. Go to AIDS.gov for easy HIV basics!
6. Drink in moderation. Consuming alcohol can impair your judgment, leading to unsafe sex or other decisions you might not normally make. Have fun, but always keep a clear mind!
7. If you’re HIV+, be sure to take your medications on-time every time. This helps reduce the amount of virus in your body, which also lowers the chances you’ll transmit HIV. Just remember that you can still transmit HIV to your partner even if you have a low viral load – so always use a condom.
8. Volunteer. It’s one of the best ways to see the impact you’re making in the lives of people infected or affected by the disease. Most HIV/AIDS service organizations couldn’t survive without the help of generous volunteers!
9. Donate. Volunteering goes a long way toward helping people, but monetary contributions are essential. With funders cutting back on their grant money due to the recession, nonprofits helping HIV/AIDS patients are relying on individual contributions more than ever.
10. Spread the word. Educating a friend about HIV/AIDS could save their life – and you might never know it. Even a simple Facebook status or tweet about wearing a condom or getting tested helps raise awareness. Connect with organizations like The Damien Center on Facebook or through Twitter @damiencenter for ways you can help spread the word and get Indiana down to zero!

Costume Ideas: Straight from Mad Men

Welcome to the Costume Ideas blog series! This series is intended to inspire your inner fashion designer so you can look like you stepped out of the 1950/60s when you walk into Mad Masquerade.


This week, we're taking a look at AMC Mad Men's Season 4 Fashion Gallery! The gallery showcases many fantastic outfits, but these are our top three.

1. Joan's "Wave" Dress: We love it! Much like Janie Bryant, costume designer for Mad Men, we're attracted to the ruffles at the collar and sleeve. We also love the high contrast between the darker blue and the white, creating a cleaner look. Accessories weren't emphasized in the 60s, and she does a very good job of keeping using the gold accents to enhance her look without dominating it.

2. Stan Rizzo's Suit: Even though it wasn't particularly characteristic of the early 60s, Stan did a pretty good job of being trendy with this green plaid suit. "He's one of our more modern characters who takes a casual approach to being at work," says Bryant. The late sixties was a movement away from the fifties - so while the gray flannel suit is the standard, Stan shows us that we're able to be more creative!

3. Faye Miller's Black and White: Her look is eye catching with the bold black and white print; her bold lipstick only helps to emphasize the overall look's strength. Her gray skirt is houndstooth, shown below and to the left.


For more ideas straight from Mad Men, please visit their Season 4 Fashion Gallery! (Of course, we own none of these images; they were taken directly out of the Season 4 Fashion Gallery. Many thanks to Janie Bryan for her inspirational vintage fashion!)