Until There’s A Cure
Until There’s a Cure
(UTAC), a perennial favorite in our Holiday Gift Guide, is one of the earliest HIV/AIDS-related charities, having raised awareness and funds to combat this pandemic since the beginning. We’ve all seen the famous, iconic UTAC Bracelet. But The Bracelet is only one of UTAC’S amazing gifts available on their online store, which also offers clothing, shoulder bags, aromatherapy spray, handcrafted jewelry, tote bags, and numerous other items your friends would love to receive! UTAC reinvests 88% of the proceeds from all sales into the cause, so you can be assured your contribution is going toward the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Tell Me More: This year, we are delighted to highlight some of the other great gifts from their catalog, including:
Scarves: These stylish scarves, designed and made by South African women, are made of upcycled fabrics; they measure 75 inches long, 18 inches wide. Your purchase directly supports vulnerable and marginalized communities while also empowering women in South Africa. The scarves come in different styles; two of our favorites are the Beaded Tassel scarves and the Silk Tassel scarves.
Masks: Like the tasseled scarves, these colorful face masks are hand-crafted by South African women. Each mask is made of three layers with 50g spun bond as non-woven filter between the two outer layers; each also features a nose piece to shape around the bridge of the nose for a good fit. Your purchase directly supports vulnerable and marginalized communities while empowering South African women.
The Bracelet: The original design of The Bracelet was created in 1993 by Isabel Geddes of Florence, Italy. This sterling silver cuff-style bracelet measures 1/4 inches wide and features a small, raised AIDS ribbon on the outside. The inside is inscribed with “Until There’s A Cure.” Sizes: Small (fits up to 6-inch wrist), Medium (6 to 7.5-inch wrist), and Large (7.5 to 9-inch wrist). The Bracelet is also available in other metals.
How Much: The tasseled scarves cost $40 each. The masks cost $10 each, or three for $25. And finally, the sterling silver bracelet can be yours—or a friend’s—for $95.
Who Benefits: UTAC funds innovative programs which promote AIDS awareness and prevention education, provides financial support for care and services for those living with AIDS, and supports and advocates for AIDS vaccine development. UTAC is a United States organization, but its reach is worldwide.
How to Order: All of these items, as well as many others, are available for sale at www.until.org.
Good Cheer to All!
Celebrating the Holidays during a raging pandemic might be, well, a little awkward for all of us this year. “Making merry” and spreading “good cheer” might seem incongruous, even disrespectful, in a year when hundreds of thousands of our countrymen have perished from COVID-19 and several million more have been infected. It may be difficult to open our bruised and battered hearts enough to let in the spirit of giving.
But I remember many years during the height of the AIDS pandemic when we lived with even more death and chaos than we’ve lived with this year. I remember years when the Holiday season was filled with more funerals and memorials than holiday parties. And still, every year, even the worst years, we gathered our friends and families together for Holiday meals; we ooh’d and ahh’d over gifts we exchanged with each other; we popped open the champagne bottles and toasted our friends, living and gone. We did these things because we needed them—we needed these rituals to show ourselves that despite all the death and chaos that engulfed us, there is still Love in the world, that it is still possible to find or make Joy in our lives, that mourning our dead and celebrating Life are not mutually exclusive.
We surely need those rituals this year!
And so, we here at A&U continue our tradition of spotlighting holiday gifts that perform double duty—they will charm and delight the recipient of the gifts, of course, but they will also raise much-needed funds for HIV/AIDS organizations and charities. From silly and campy to luxurious and fashionable, in every price range, the gifts highlighted here are sure to warm even the most battered hearts. We hope you will enjoy giving them as much as your friends will enjoy receiving them.
We wish all of you a joyous, heart-centered Holiday Season filled with love and good cheer. Now go out there and make merry!
—Hank Trout
Hank Trout, Senior Editor, edited Drummer, Malebox, and Folsom magazines in the early 1980s. A long-term survivor of HIV/AIDS (diagnosed in 1989), he is a forty-year resident of San Francisco, where he lives with his husband Rick. Follow him on Twitter @HankTroutWriter.