New York City -- For the 8th Year, Housing Works will host an epic commemoration of World AIDS Day on Saturday December 1st, this year on 125th Street in Harlem.

Our World AIDS Day Commemoration pays homage to the people that we have known and lost to AIDS. While the new war on terrorism has overtaken public and governmental agendas since September 11th, the crises of homelessness and AIDS have not stopped. The 2001 World AIDS Day Commemoration will remind our elected officials and all other New Yorkers that people with AIDS are dying right here in New York and around the world from lack of adequate housing and care.

Because of the events of September 11th we have had to move our event from City Hall Park to Harlem State Office Building, 163 West 125th Street at Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. The event will begin at midnight with a lone reader at a microphone in the plaza of the Harlem State Office Building, reciting the names of people who have died with AIDS. At dawn, four more readers will gradually join in until five voices are intermingling, suggesting the overwhelming devastation of our communities.

For the past eight years we have held a 24-hour vigil in City Hall Park with the theme, "Tell the Mayor People with AIDS Are Dying." This year as a new mayor and many new City Council members come into office, we here at Housing Works have decided to broaden the focus of our World AIDS Day Commemoration to bring attention to devastating impact of AIDS across the city, country and the world. This year we will "Tell the World: People with AIDS Are Still Dying."

Worldwide an estimated 36.1 million people are living with HIV. Last year, 3 million people died with AIDS and 21.8 million people have been lost since the epidemic began. In the United States, there are over 317,000 registered cases of AIDS. New York City is the ground zero, not only for the tragedy of September 11th, but also for the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Over 42,000 New Yorkers are living with AIDS today, and over 100,000 are living with HIV.

We invite you to join us for a World AIDS Day Commemoration that New Yorkers cannot ignore and will not easily forget. There are several ways you can be involved.

• Sponsor: We ask that organizations wishing to co-sponsor the event donate $500 to help defray the costs, commit people to read names for a block of time, and collect names to be read and photographs to be displayed. If possible we also hope that your organization would invite people to the march and rally.

• Endorser: We are asking endorsers to cover a block of reading time and to gather names to be read and photographs to be displayed.

We envision the Vigil to be an opportunity to unite many organizations and individuals who are fighting the twin epidemics of AIDS and apathy, but we encourage every participating organization to carry out independent action as well.

For more information call Delia Yarrow at (212) 966-0466 ext. 1120 or e-mail yarrow@housingworks.org.