The following is the speech given by Robert H. Neubert, director of catering sales at Hilton Chicago, in accepting the AIDS Foundation of Chicago Lori Kaufman Volunteer Award at the 2013 AFC gala April 18.
So what do you get when you cross an interior designer with a Broadway producer? For me, it was my introduction to this life-changing organization.
I first met Broadway producer Mary Lu Roffe and interior designer John Ansehl about 15 years ago. This dynamic duo came to me as co-chairs for an upcoming Not Just Song & Dance gala benefiting the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Being in the party booking business, I of course jumped at the chance to sign a contract with a new client. Well, our deal got done, and in time, planning was underway.
Now, working in the events world, I come in daily contact with many worthwhile charities and philanthropic organizations.
However in working with the AIDS Foundation, I soon came to realize that this particular organization had a very personal connection calling out to me. My early role as their event business partner quickly evolved to include service as a volunteer, and before long, as a board member. David Munar, Mark Ishaug, Casey Klarich, Mike Dilbeck and many others here tonight, became extended family.
You see, 34 years ago in our much younger days, my partner Barry and I were living in New York pursuing theatrical careers.
These were also the earliest days of AIDS. So early, in fact, that many doctors had little to no knowledge of what they struggled to diagnose. Painfully, more than a few doctors understood quite well, but refused to administer patient care.
Other, more compassionate doctors consulted with specialists but ultimately made surrendered referrals on behalf of their dying patients.
As time went on, I sadly lost friends, neighbors, colleagues, and even a few employers— because in those days, diagnosis was a death sentence.
In 1981, I got to speak with seven-time Tony Award-winning choreographer-director Michael Bennett, as a guest at his opening night cast party for Dreamgirls. In 1987, Michael Bennett was gone at age 44. On the night of his death, the cast of A Chorus Line in performing the show's final number "One Singular Sensation" changed a simple pronoun from "She" to "He's … the one". Broadway was forever changed.
One of my frequent diners back in my early Manhattan restaurant years was the high-living, often despised and yes, bigger than life Roy Cohn, whose prominence, personal celebrity and political influence is now forever captured as the AIDS-afflicted attorney in Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America. In 1986, Roy Cohn was gone as well. In spite of fame, wealth and even great power, AIDS took its prisoners.
Decades later what started for me as a personal fight in remembrance of lost friends, continues on today as a worldwide epidemic. This remarkable organization however has turned my earlier anger and bitterness to a more positive beacon for hope and change. For while we are on the cusp of an AIDS-free generation, every day 1,000 children are newly infected with HIV.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that there are more than 1 million people living with HIV in the United States alone, and that one in every five is not even aware that they carry an infection. Someone in the U.S. is newly infected every 10 minutes.
Gratefully, I stopped losing personal friends more than 20 years ago, but to the more than 34 million adults and children living with HIV and AIDS globally, the numbers are very different. Less than half of those eligible for life-saving treatment ever receive it.
So while I am very, very grateful to all of you for this inspiring honor and recognition, tonight's award is not for me, but is instead accepted on behalf of those whose voice has been silenced. It is accepted on behalf of those who will never receive the benefit of live-saving treatment.
But it is also accepted with optimistic hope for millions worldwide and it is especially accepted with triumphant thanks for our many friends who survived the fight and remain with us today.
Volunteering is easy. Writing checks is easy. Being a part of World of Chocolate, of Dance for Life, of doing the AIDS Run & Walk, these are all easy. But we still need help.
We can and we will, beat this disease.
On behalf of my fellow board members, our President and CEO David Munar, our tireless, passionate staff and our thousands of dedicated volunteers at AFC—and yes, for those who depend on our efforts to survive—I ask you to please … Help us change the story.
