The Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force -- one the state's oldest and largest AIDS service organizations -- turns 20 this month.

"Sheer fright brought us all together," Ron Cruikshank said of the effort's early days. "This was a terrible disease that nobody knew much about. We were frightened and willing to do whatever we could."

"None of our existing organizations could deal with what was happening," recalled the Rev. Louis F. Kavar, who offered his spare bedroom as PATF's first office. Under PATF's first executive director, Kerry Stoner, the group offered legal assistance and a buddy program, delivering food to clients, cleaning their homes, and comforting those who were dying. Then Stoner pushed PATF to offer HIV testing and counseling, started transportation assistance and organized a food pantry. Stoner himself died of AIDS in 1993.

Today, PATF has 37 staff members and a $1.8 million annual operating budget, serves as many as 800 clients per year, and touches 5,000 others through its prevention outreach. Last year, CDC awarded PATF a $310,000 grant to expand its prevention work. However, next year, PATF will lose half its federal funding for some of its case management work. Last year, the task force shuttered its AIDS Walk because of declining interest and funding competition.

PATF is collaborating with African-American community groups to ramp-up testing, education and treatment services. The group has always served clients on the margins, those who are poor or discriminated against. "But now we're definitely seeing a difference in the face of our clients," as more women and blacks are being hit by HIV/AIDS, said Kathi Boyle, PATF's executive director. The task force is returning to its roots, going to venues where people are at risk, doing outreach on the streets, in gay bars and youth centers, said volunteer Alan Jones.

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