ATLANTA — Later this month, hundreds of runners are expected to lace up their shoes and pound the pavement in-person (or virtually) at Piedmont Park for this year’s Atlanta Pride Run.
The 31st annual 5K race is organized by the Atlanta Front Runners, an LGBTQ social running group. It’s scheduled for June 20 at 8 a.m.
The run historically benefits LGBTQ non-profits in metro Atlanta. This year, the beneficiary is Joining Hearts Atlanta. Since 1987, the advocacy organization has worked to raise awareness and funds to support prevention, care, and housing assistance to those impacted by HIV/AIDS in Atlanta.
"We are incredibly excited to give back to the Atlanta LGBTQ community, a community impacted by not just one, but two pandemics. The first, HIV/AIDS and the second, COVID-19. Our funds go to help those impacted by HIV to get live saving treatments and keep their homes," Thomas Barker, president of the Atlanta Front Runners said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Atlanta metropolitan area ranked second in the country for HIV infections in 2019.
To help promote the race and advocate for HIV awareness, race organizers produced a video featuring Keith Willey and his late partner, Phillip Vallowe, who were some of the founding members of the Atlanta Front Runners.
In the video, Wiley describes living in Atlanta during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and draws parallels between that time and the current pandemic.
“If we had a vaccine for HIV back in the 1980s, I would have had a lot more friends to grow old with,” Willey said.
Vallowe died of AIDS in 1993.
“Front Runners were really important at the time when they came along in 1990 because the community was really suffering from so much loss from HIV. It seemed so helpless,” Willey said.
In 2020, the race went entirely virtual to minimize the spread of COVID-19, but it still raised about $30,000. Proceeds benefited AID Atlanta and Track Georgia
For details about the run and how to register, visit the Front Runners race page.
Video produced and edited by DJ Pulce and Cassidy Baumann. Audio by Tri Ngyuen.