GOOD NEWS - AccolAIDS, 2008

This year's AccolAIDS gala presented by British Columbia Person's with AIDS Society, was held on April 13th. Last year, the late (and great) John Spencer won an award, he was one of AIDS Vancouver Island's founders, a long term activist and one of our board members, as well as Carol Romanow, a volunteer with VARCS who has been working in Harm Reduction for many years.

Well this year, we had one of our own win the Kevin Brown, PWA Hero Award! And the winner is (the envelope please)….. None other than our very own Michael Yoder! It is so great that Michael received much deserved recognition of all the heart, dedication, hard work and yes, his twisted sense of humor, he has put into over 2 decades of education, prevention and advocacy awareness about HIV/AIDS. Michael is very humble so VARCS' is pleased he has been honored!

Here is his winning profile listed on BCPWA's website:

Michael Yoder started out as a helpline volunteer with AIDS Vancouver Island in 1986 and began a strange journey where talking about sex, all the time, was normal (until he'd go out with friends and realize it was not). Michael worked as the helpline coordinator, volunteer coordinator, a board member of the Victoria Person's with AIDS Society and as the Education Coordinator for Victoria AIDS Resource & Community Service Society. After his partner died, Michael took on the role of Executive Director of VARCS. He sat on the Canadian AIDS Society board of directors for 6 years as the HIV+ rep for the Pacific Region. Michael believes imagination is essential and that playing with what we do, no matter how serious it might seem, is the only way we can move forward and flourish as people living with HIV, (or as people, period). Well said, it is impossible to sum up how much Michael has done, how caring he is and how intelligent and creative he is in one paragraph! Congrats Michael! You deserve it!!