Rhode Island Volunteer Honored for Work with AIDS Group

After more than a decade of service, Doreen Blue of Warwick, R.I., has been named Volunteer of the Month by the Volunteer Center of Rhode Island. Once a month, Blue shares a stage with drag queen Aurora Borealis. Blue calls the numbers for AIDS Project Rhode Island's monthly Gay Bingo fund-raiser at the Riviera Bingo Hall. "I'm the straight man, the one who has to do the official stuff, and we bounce off each other," Blue explained. Blue has been the caller for Gay Bingo since its inception four years ago, but that's only a fraction of her volunteer work, most of it for Providence-based AIDS Project Rhode Island.

Blue said she became involved with the AIDS Project more than a decade ago when the AIDS epidemic was gaining widespread recognition as a national health crisis. Blue was in a community theater group at the time, and many of her fellow actors were gay, she said. She learned about AIDS from them. She was also an avid quilter. "My friends said, 'I hear they're looking for people to make panels in an AIDS Quilt.'" Blue began making quilted panels for families who could not sew their own. Soon, she was also volunteering for the AIDS hotline, something she still does 12 years later. Blue also participates in the AIDS Project's buddy program, which pairs volunteers with people who have AIDS.

"You go through the whole death and dying with them," Blue said. In 13 years she has had 10 buddies -- all but one has died, she said. Besides her work for the AIDS Project, Blue, who works as a therapy assistant for preschool children, also volunteers as a coach for Special Olympics Rhode Island. She said she simply loves to volunteer. "I love to help people," she said. "If the need's there, I'll do it."

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