As part of a national Jaycees campaign, the Baton Rouge Junior Chamber of Commerce is raising money to start a pediatric HIV/AIDS outreach center between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Since 1995, the US Jaycees have opened centers for children affected by AIDS (either as a patient or a patient's family member) in St. Louis, Chicago and Grand Rapids, Mich. The centers offer a variety of services including day care, respite, help for parents who want to tell their children about HIV/AIDS, mental health counseling, case management and transportation. "No one should have to miss a doctor's appointment because you don't have a car," said Kelly Mulkey, president of the Baton Rouge Jaycees.

Mulkey said the Jaycees do not want to duplicate the wide range of services being provided by Volunteers of America, Family Service of Greater Baton Rouge and other agencies. Instead, she said, the Jaycees want to support these agencies and offer fill-in services the others do not provide. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Baton Rouge is one of the reasons local Jaycees are pushing the project. According to the Louisiana Department of Health, 3,112 people were diagnosed with HIV in East Baton Rouge Parish through Dec. 31, 2000. Within metropolitan Baton Rouge, there have been 1,015 new AIDS cases in the past five years.

"Our society has just become willing to say the word AIDS," Mulkey said. "I think Baton Rouge sees it. It's a crisis." About $125,000 is needed to open the center; the Jaycees are trying to raise $50,000 in seed money to pursue federal grants; currently, members have raised about $15,000.

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