How can your parish support AIDS ministry? Sometimes it's as simple as providing a place to meet.
-Matthew Ellis, NEAC
This article originally appeared on September 23, 2011
Lauren Sage Reinlie
Daily News
In 1991, David Neal, who grew up in Fort Walton Beach, had been diagnosed with AIDS, along with 45,500 other people in the United States. At that time, the diagnosis meant he probably had two years or less to live.
Ten years after the first cases of AIDS were identified, the disease had become the second leading cause of death among American men aged 25 to 44.
Neal came home to spend time with his family.
“When he got here he was very disappointed that there were no services at all and he had a dream to change that,” said Butch McKay, who now, 20 years later, directs an organization that fulfills that dream — the Okaloosa AIDS Support and Information Service (OASIS) center in Fort Walton Beach.
The center received its nonprofit status Oct. 3, 1991, after a small band of volunteers, including Neal’s mother Carmelita, started meeting regularly.
“The first office was Carmelita’s trunk, then it moved to the kitchen,” McKay said.
St. Simon’s on the Sound Episcopal Church later let the group move into its first real office space.
Neal died the following April.
“He did live to see his dream come true and it still lives today,” McKay said. “We continue to be grateful to David and his vision. We wouldn’t be here without his determination.”
