Last-minute donations keep AIDS Moncton in red (scarves)

Each year Debbie Warren of AIDS Moncton collects donated red scarves to give out or leave tied up around Moncton on to remind people there is still no cure for AIDS and HIV.

World AIDS Day is on Dec. 1 and Warren wants people to be prepared to show their support.

"We want to acknowledge that we have lost people to HIV/AIDS and it's in memory of them and to acknowledge that we still have work to do," Warren said.

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AIDS Moncton relies on the kindness of volunteers to gather at least 200 scarves. The cut-off date for the scarves was Wednesday, and Debby Warren says a few last minute donations were enough to meet the goal.

Just before lunchtime, 99 red fleece scarves were dropped off at the group's headquarters on Weldon Street.

"The pride committee from Exxon Mobil has graciously prepared these."

And later in the day Warren drove to Riverview to pick up a smaller, but just as important, donation.

Ernestine LeBlanc is a retired school teacher who starter crocheting 50 years ago, but it was within the last five, that she started donating her work.

"I had to do something you know, I can't just sit here and twiddle my thumbs, so I started doing that."

She said it takes her about two days to complete a scarf, and she crocheted seven for AIDS Day. She's hoping to start earlier next year to donate more.

But to LeBlanc's credit, she also donated 60 hats to the House of Nazareth, and baby afghan blankets to the Pregnancy Resource Centre of Moncton.

Warren said every scarf counts.

"It's really about people acknowledging that there is still is not a cure for HIV AIDS and while it's not of epidemic proportions in our country, it still is in other parts of the world."

AIDS New Brunswick said 400 people in the province are living with AIDS, but it estimated the real number could be as high as 600.

According to the group's website, "when people don't feel comfortable being tested in their home areas, they may choose to get tested outside of New Brunswick, so those numbers would not be captured by the Public Health Agency of Canada."

Regardless of the numbers, Warren said, it's an issue that needs to be talked about.

According to the World Health Organization, "in 2016, one million people died from HIV-related causes globally."

It said there are nearly 37 million people living with HIV worldwide.