Statistically speaking, pet owners may be likely to live longer, but Dr. Robert Garofalo and his Yorkie, Fred, are attempting to spread the puppy vitality to others in need. Fred Says is a new organization designed to help uninsured Chicago teens living with HIV. The pair is raising money from home by selling greeting cards with photos of the undeniably adorable Fred in a sundry of poses, outfits and backgrounds.
"I know to some, or many, this whole thing sounds silly, but we are having fun with it. It may well be a crazy idea, but it just might work," said Garofalo.
This grassroots effort is being spearheaded by Garofalo, who is the director of the Children's Memorial Hospital's Center for Gender, Sexuality and HIV Prevention. "I am the Center's Director and I oversee a dedicated and talented staff of over 20 individuals," he said. "They keep me on my toes and I couldn't do this work without them. More importantly, I wouldn't want to. I am the lead investigator on a number of the research projects and also a pediatrician who has a clinical practice of HIV+ youth and LGBT youth. This practice is growing fairly rapidly."
Garofalo is a national authority on LGBT youth issues, has previously worked for the Howard Brown Health Center, and has also served as the president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. In his work for the Center for Gender, Sexuality and HIV Prevention, he and his staff, "aspire to be a leader in education, clinical care, research and advocacy related to special populations such as high-risk, adolescents, LGBT youth and individuals impacted by HIV/AIDS. Our work is grounded in the communities we serve and we partner with a number of academic institutions such as Northwestern University, UIC and University of Chicago as well as local community-based agencies with strong histories of caring for the populations central to our mission, such as TPAN, [ Test Positive Aware Network ] the Center on Halsted and Chicago House. The research we do tends to be rather practical in nature and designed to give the community or the populations we care for practical ways of overcoming health-related challenges. For instance, we have a [ National Institutes of Health ] -funded study evaluating the utility of using text-messaging technology to help HIV+ youth adhere to their medications effectively. This study has recruited youth from all across the city. We also have a NIH-funded study examining the efficacy of a homegrown HIV prevention intervention for young transgender women."
In today's economic climate, there isn't always enough money for public health organizations. Budgets for small agencies become even tighter when the general economy takes a dip. Local agencies take the hit hardest because these valuable resources must then compete with each other for funding. The recent closing of BEHIV, flat-funding for the Ryan White Care Act and restrictions put on the AIDS Drug Assistance Program ( ADAP ) are all examples of the decline in public health funding.
"I fear the writing is on the wall and I'm a bit concerned that some of the toughest years may be yet to come, requiring agencies and institutions to consider creative ways of generating income to partially offset a constriction of available public health dollars," Garofalo explained.
Creative thinking is exactly how Garofalo plans to raise funds for his department at Children's Memorial Hospital. With the Fred Says Organization he is able to combine his love for his job, his passion for creativity and his puppy in order to raise money for healthcare among the uninsured.
"It's about trying to take matters into our hands a bit, rather than simply relying on Ryan White or [ the Chicago Department of Public Health ] or local foundations. This is an effort to both raise awareness and hopefully raise capital for a worthy cause that is near and dear to my heart," Garofalo said.
Garofalo has spent his career helping patients cope with illness, but in 2006 he was diagnosed with cancer. Into his life came Fred, who helped him snap out of the inevitable depression that he felt after leaving HBHC. His staff has also felt the comforting effects of having the puppy in their lives, and out of that came Fred Says.
Though much of the Fred Says project is being executed by Garofalo, he was not alone in its inception: "It was started with my own and my staff's personal resources, so we have taken quite a risk. There has been no organized PR effort, a friend actually wrote our press release on his lunch break. We do a lot of the marketing and outreach in our spare time and weekends, but we are having so much fun with it."
And speaking of marketing and promotion, the organization will hold its first fundraising event this weekend. The event is being held at Sidetrack. The bar has a long history of helping agencies raise funds for care related to HIV and HIV prevention. The event will be held on Sunday, Nov. 13 from 4-7 p.m. The goal of the event is to promote the cards, the charity and raise critical funds.
The Fred Says cards are available through www.fredsays.org as well as at Unabridged Books on Broadway and Saugatuck Coffee on Halsted. The cards are sold in packs of 20. One box is equal to the amount of money it takes a patient to get to and from treatment, 30 boxes is equivalent to the laboratory costs of one HIV+ teen's primary care and 300 boxes would fully support an uninsured HIV+ teen for one year's worth of primary care. Fred Says is technically a direct-care fundraiser with 85-90% of profits going directly toward the Center for Gender, Sexuality and HIV Prevention at Children's Memorial Hospital, which specifically goes toward paying for treatments of uninsured teens with HIV. The other 10-15% of profit goes toward keeping the group afloat.
"I think this generation of LGBT youth and HIV+ youth show a strength, a resilience and resolve to succeed that I think is inspiring at times. I do believe that Chicago has a vibrant community of young people that can often serve as critical sources of support for one another in the absence of a larger community-based or familial ties," said Garofalo.
Regarding sales so far, Garofalo said: "Not bad, but this is a marathon, not a sprint. … I'm a dreamer, and ultimately I'd like to see this morph into a Fred Says Charitable Foundation that raises money and awareness of adolescent HIV in communities and agencies across the U.S. For now, I have 4,000 boxes of greeting cards in my living room that I'd love to sell."
This story is part of the Local Reporting Initiative, supported in part by The Chicago Community Trust.