California: Silicon Valley AIDS Center to Close

Despite fundraising efforts, a loss of corporate sponsorship is shuttering the Silicon Valley AIDS Leadership Center. SVALC, the only organization in Santa Clara County focused exclusively on fighting HIV/AIDS, will close its doors by year's end, said James Lee, the center's chairperson.

According to Lee, the $100,000 to $200,000 in corporate philanthropy SVALC once enjoyed has vanished due to the recession. A food festival, a popular AIDS walk, banquets, and other fundraising efforts could not overcome the loss, he said. "It turns out none of our efforts turned up enough money," Lee noted.

Faced with the prospect of falling into debt, SVALC's board of directors decided to liquidate all assets and distribute those funds to local AIDS agencies.

Vida Kanthak, director of HIV education and training for the Community Health Partnership, one of 10 agencies that received support from SVALC this year, said the center's grants, though modest, helped offset funding cuts from the county at a critical time. "It's definitely a loss," she said.

Worse than the loss of funding is the loss of an agency that got people "to pay attention to this problem," said Kanthak.

Marianne Gallagher, a retired nurse who recently joined SVALC's board, helped stage the center's first AIDS walk at Stanford University. "The loss of the walk is the saddest part," she said. "It's an institution in Silicon Valley."

Lee said the board hopes one of the agencies SVALC has supported will keep the annual walk going.

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