On Feb. 9, the Florida Community Health Center (FCHC), Department of Health and partner organizations sponsored a small health fair at the Fort Pierce Boys & Girls Club to mark National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. An hour into the event, volunteers armed with education pamphlets and condoms fanned out into the surrounding neighborhoods, promoting the event and hoping to draw a larger crowd.

The need for HIV/AIDS awareness is great in St. Lucie County, where one in every 35 blacks is living with the disease, a 2006 Department of Health report showed. “It’s an alarming statistic,” said Lori Zeh, director of HIV treatment programs at FCHC.

The event offered free HIV tests, lunch, games, and a performance of “Keep It on the Hush,” a play performed by young people that addresses social pressure and secrecy and fear surrounding HIV/AIDS. In it, the two main characters, “popular guy” and “popular girl,” become infected with HIV, with the guy transmitting it to the girl after having a secret sexual relationship with another man.

The skit’s message, said Tia King, 17, who plays the part of the girl, is: “It could happen to anyone.” “Never be afraid to go out and get tested,” she said. “You can’t just look at someone and tell if they have it.”

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