Elaine Pasqua

A seemingly inconsequential night of unprotected sex lubricated by booze may shatter your "King of the World" mentality.


"Sex and Excess; Surviving the Party," hosted by Elaine Pasqua Sunday night, revealed the high-risk behavior of college students and the consequences they will ultimately face. Pasqua stressed the highly toxic and common practice of mixing unprotected sex and alcohol.


Alcohol is the No. 1 high-risk behavior of college-aged students. A human liver can only process one alcoholic drink an hour. This isn't the likely scenario during your last case race or Beirut tournament. When consuming more than one drink per hour, the brain begins to shut down. The first center that shuts down is the cerebral cortex, which is the center of higher rational thinking. This part of brain sets human rational thinking apart from animalistic, impulsive thinking. After the cerebral cortex is rendered useless, one is left to rely on the limbic system - the primitive drives of sex, pleasure, hunger and thirst.


"Sex is the most powerful human behavior, it can give life, take life, and alter your life," Pasqua said. sixty-five million people are currently living with incurable sexually transmitted diseases in America. Pasqua said Herpes, the most common STD, is "the gift that keeps on giving." The Herpes virus comes in two forms - level one and level two, which can be interchanged. Level one is a cold sore on the mouth. Level two are genital warts which can spread to the eyes, nose and throat. Outbreaks occur when the body is under stress. An uninfected person is 100 percent guaranteed to contract the virus if they come in contact with a Herpes blister.


"Inspect the things you're about to play with," Pasqua said.


"People are honest in an open discussion, but when it really comes down to it, they're not honest," Jennifer Lanza, a 4th-semester, HDFS major said. "Maybe that is why 75 percent of this campus has an STD."


Pasqua suggests that alcohol leads to choices that would not have been made otherwise, stating "85 percent of sexual interactions are unplanned and caused by alcohol." She offers other options, which she admitted might be unsettling to conservative ears. Pasqua said it is important to "loosen up, lighten up and not be so prudish with our own bodies." Options with no fluid exchange are what Pasqua provides as enjoyable alternative to intercourse or abstinence.
"You can be intimate without having sex," Pasqua said before breaking out into a male and female version of "The Masturbation Song."


While she highlighted the positive effects of a healthy sexual appetite, Pasqua informed of the downside of sexual aggression such as sexual assault and date rape. Pasqua defines rape as a desire to conquer, overpower or control somebody and not necessarily fulfill sexual needs. There has been an increase in the use of date rape drugs.


"Date rape drugs are a cowards' way of having sex," Pasqua said.
The two types of date rape drugs currently being used are "Roofies," or Rohypnol, and "G," or GHB, which can begin to work in 15 to 30 minutes. Pasqua said that if you know your limits you will usually be able to tell that you are feeling "suddenly and extremely intoxicated" too soon after just a few drinks. A victim of date rape may experience paralysis, extended blackouts, slowing bodily functions and a loss of use of their limbs. Pasqua warns not to allow a friend to "sleep it off."


"It is worth wasting a trip to the emergency room," she said.


Protect your drink at a party, don't drink from punch bowls and open your own can or bottle. If at a bar, Pasqua said, "Go with the person getting the drink, watch the bartender, don't take your eyes off the drink. In a crowded area, put your hand over your cup."


"Don't let yourself be a victim and be proactive," Pasqua said.
If suspicions arise that you or a friend have been drugged, go to the emergency room and bring the container you drank from, the residue of date rape drugs remain on the container and can be tested.


In the party scene, many college students see drinking as a way to aid them socially, helping them feel more confident and attractive in hopes of meeting someone.


"Think of yourself when you're throwing up in a toilet at a party," Pasqua said. "Realize how repulsive you've become ever when you were trying to be attractive."
Thomas Szigethy, Director of Alcohol and Other Drug Education and Services, the event sponsor, said some college students believe "drinking becomes the way to be social until socializing only becomes possible when drinking." This behavior can be detrimental after graduation when alcohol is used as a crutch in business relationships.


"We gauge our sexual success about getting pregnant or not, not about getting an STD or not. Regardless of the birth control being used, always use a condom," Pasqua said.


Natural skin condoms will let STD's through - latex condoms are the only condom that prevents STD's. When used properly, latex condoms can reduce the probability of contracting STD's by 98 percent. One of the exercises at "Sex and Excess" included a volunteer wearing goggles that simulated drunkenness attempting to put a condom on a rubber penis. Pasqua said she has found people don't even know how to use condoms properly. She walked the volunteer through the steps. First, check the expiration date, then check to see if it is punctured. Squeeze the center of the condom while in the package and make sure to feel a cushion air. If there is no air in the center then the condom is punctured. While putting a condom on, Pasqua said, squeeze the tip until fully rolled down, which prevents semen from breaking the condom. Do not store condoms in wallets, glove compartments or pockets, which will break down the latex. Only use a water based lubricant. Oil based lubricants such as Vaseline will disintegrate the condom.


Pasqua's stepfather contracted AIDS in 1989 after he was involved in a clinical study of a pharmaceutical drug that used human plasma. The plasma was infected with the AIDS virus. He later passed the virus onto Pasqua's mother. Pasqua lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons. She is a nationally recognized speaker on AIDS, STD's and sexual awareness who stresses "work hard, play hard, but do it very responsibly." - The Daily Camps University of Connecticut

Even though Elaine Pasqua lost her mother and stepfather to AIDS, she is not one-sided about high-risk behavior. As a college student, she partied.

“I got through it, but not everyone does,” she said.

Pasqua, president of Project Prevent, a non-profit organization that provides AIDS prevention education, spoke to about 200 students Monday evening about the effects alcohol has on sexual activity.

Alcohol is the number one high-risk behavior, Pasqua said, and the main reason that people drink alcohol is to feel more confident.

Pasqua provided an example of a guy wanting to talk to an attractive girl at a party.

“You start pounding down drinks thinking you’ll loosen up,” she said. “Then, you’ll have the worst breath at the party and the girl will not want to talk to you.”

Within 90 seconds of having a drink, alcohol leaves the stomach, Pasqua said. After only five minutes of having one drink, the alcohol reaches the brain and greatly decreases a person’s inhibitions.

Pasqua asked freshman industrial design major Holden Plack to wear goggles simulating a 0.10 blood alcohol level to show the effects of alcohol on coordination. Plack, a TU basketball player, was unable to make a shot—or even walk a straight line.

“It’s kind of wild,” Plack said.

Alcohol can also have an effect on grades.

“Twenty-eight percent of college dropouts are due to alcohol,” Pasqua said.

The average A-student has 4.25 drinks a week, she added, explaining that as the amount of drinks increases, GPA decreases.

While she doesn’t expect students to never drink, Pasqua said it is important to drink responsibly. Dangers of alcohol include rape, violence, injuries and even death.

Pasqua shared a story about a Cornell University student who decided to go to the roof of a building while drunk. He thought it would be a good idea to slide down the chimney, she said, but on the way down he got caught on something and choked to death.

Hand-in-hand with alcohol is unsafe sex. Pasqua asked everyone to participate in a Fluid Exchange Exercise, in which students picked up a cup containing either water or sodium hydroxide, representing HIV. Since both liquids are clear, students did not know which one they had.

Students mixed their liquids with three other people to simulate exchanging fluids with other people through sex. Afterward they had their cups tested; if the liquid turned pink, the student had contracted HIV. The amount of cups containing sodium hydroxide began with 24 and increased to more than 140 after exchanging fluids.

Junior exercise science major Steve Fell was shocked as he watched his and a friend’s cups turned pink.

“It wasn’t a good feeling,” Fell said.

Though the exercise wasn’t a reality, it still affected people, Pasqua said.

“Think about how difficult it would be to tell someone you love that you have HIV,” she said.

She then filled the audience in with statistics: 65 million people have an incurable sexually transmitted disease, 25 percent of people under 21 have an STD and there are around 40,000 new cases of HIV every year in the United States.

Chlamydia and gonorrhea cases have increased greatly, even among middle school students.

“We have an epidemic because kids don’t think oral sex is sex,” Pasqua said.

STDs can leave people sterile and ruin their hopes of having a family. There are many preventive steps to take.

Abstinence and masturbation are 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and STDs, Pasqua said.

However, if students do have sex, they should protect themselves by using latex condoms, which are 99 percent effective against pregnancy and STDs.

To show how alcohol can affect safe sex, Pasqua asked a student to wear beer goggles and place a condom onto a dildo. Afterward, Pasqua pointed out what the student did wrong, or was not able to do intoxicated.

Pasqua explained that when using a condom, a person must first check the expiration date and then press the packet to see if there is a cushion of air. If there isn’t any air, there is a hole in the package, and the condom should be thrown out. While putting on a condom, one also needs to leave a space at the top, which can be done by pinching the top while rolling the condom down.

Another topic was the date rape drug.

“This is the coward’s way to have sex,” Pasqua said.

It only takes 15 minutes for date rape drugs to take effect. To help avoid date rape, Pasqua suggested going to parties with trustworthy people and not leaving drinks unattended.

The event ended in a role-playing game. Four males and four females assumed given identities. Each person then read a script about their “identity,” describing who they liked and who they had slept with.

As the story unfolds, the audience realizes knowing if someone has an STD is impossible because their past partners’ sexual history may not be known.

“People will do and say what they want for their own sexual gain,” Pasqua said. “One night can change your life. Don’t blow the opportunities that lay ahead for you.” - The Towerlight Towson University

If her mother, Eileen Hawkins, hadn't died of AIDS, Pasqua wouldn't be sitting here, re-creating the hills, river and lone dogwood tree visible from her mother's window. But Eileen Hawkins did die of AIDS, and her panel will join a monument in cloth made by thousands of hands. It is the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a tribute to those who have died, and a beloved comforter for those who have survived them.

[Cleve Jones] also decided that the quilt could become a powerful political tool, because a quilt is a "comfortable middle-class symbol" that most people could accept. From the start, he imagined the quilt on display in Washington, D.C., where it would be impossible to ignore. Soon, the quilt had earned a reputation as "the battle flag in the war against AIDS."

Eileen Hawkins, a widow, was infected with HIV by her second husband. He had caught HIV in the 1970s while receiving an experimental blood plasma treatment for hepatitis B. The plasma must have carried HIV. Ironically, he had sought the hepatitis treatment before marrying Eileen, because he didn't want to give his bride-to- be a chronic disease. The newlyweds soon moved to Milford, Pa., into a "dream house" overlooking the Delaware River.
Full Text (1569 words)
Copyright USA Today Information Network May 29, 2001

Elaine Pasqua's foot taps the treadle of her late mother's sewing machine, stitching a pretty pastoral scene for a patchwork quilt. Sitting in her mother's place, Pasqua feels oddly comforted, as if her mother were there guiding her hands.

If her mother, Eileen Hawkins, hadn't died of AIDS, Pasqua wouldn't be sitting here, re-creating the hills, river and lone dogwood tree visible from her mother's window. But Eileen Hawkins did die of AIDS, and her panel will join a monument in cloth made by thousands of hands. It is the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a tribute to those who have died, and a beloved comforter for those who have survived them.

"It shows that the people who were lost aren't the only victims," Pasqua says. "Those of us who were left behind are victims, too."

Now, two decades after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported that a deadly new disease had begun circulating among young gay men in Los Angeles, the quilt has become an icon of the worst epidemic known to man. It offers a uniquely personal view of the social, political and cultural impact of AIDS, assembled from the favorite sayings, images and mementos of those who have suffered most.

"For those of us who have lived through the epidemic, the quilt will be our legacy," says Pernessa Seele, who 12 years ago founded Balm of Gilead in New York to unite the nation's black churches against AIDS. It is a legacy of survival, healing and the power to create a community using a simple needle and thread.

The first report on AIDS appeared on June 5, 1981, in a CDC bulletin aptly named the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Few recognized how quickly the disease -- which the CDC attributed to "some aspect of a homosexual lifestyle or disease acquired through sexual contact" -- would spread around the world, one person at a time, destroying the very cells that protect people from infections.

The epidemic inflamed bigotry toward gays and transformed the sexual revolution into a game of Russian roulette. It provoked an ongoing debate about morality, abstinence and the way sex is taught in schools. It gave rise to a new branch of law meant to counter AIDS discrimination. It added impetus for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and reform of the USA's drug approval process; it renewed debate over care of the dying and physician-assisted suicide.

In June, the U.N. General Assembly will for the first time consider ways to narrow the gulf between nations that can afford costly treatments and those that cannot.

No nation has escaped unscathed. Health officials estimate that the AIDS virus, HIV, has infected about 60 million people worldwide since 1981, killing at least 22 million of them. The rest live on borrowed time.

And HIV shows no signs of slowing its deadly global romp. Every day, about 16,000 more people become infected. At this rate, experts say, the virus will by 2010 leave 40 million children without one or both parents. Without a vaccine, experts say, the tragedy is just beginning.

"I'm very frightened about what the future holds, not just for me but for the world," says HIV-positive activist Cleve Jones, who in the mid-1980s conceived the quilt.

'Stitching a Revolution'

In his book, Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist (written with Jeff Dawson), Jones says he had the idea for the quilt on Nov. 27, 1985. On that day, he and other activists covered a wall of San Francisco's old Federal Building with sheets of cardboard with the names of people who had died. "It reminded me of a quilt," Jones wrote, "like the one made for me by my grandmother."

Jones also decided that the quilt could become a powerful political tool, because a quilt is a "comfortable middle-class symbol" that most people could accept. From the start, he imagined the quilt on display in Washington, D.C., where it would be impossible to ignore. Soon, the quilt had earned a reputation as "the battle flag in the war against AIDS."

Over time, as the epidemic changed course, the quilt changed with it. The thousands of panels for white gay men were joined by those for people with hemophilia, and for children, African-Americans, Latinos and women. Panels for famous people betray the virus's power to penetrate every corner of cultural life.

There are panels for tennis great Arthur Ashe; Broadway impresario Michael Bennett, creator of A Chorus Line; attorney Roy Cohn, aide to the discredited anti-Communist Sen. Joseph McCarthy; rapper Eazy-E; fashion designer Perry Ellis; actor Rock Hudson; U.S. Rep. Stewart McKinney, R-Conn.; ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev; ABC News anchor Max Robinson; and Ryan White, the feisty teen whose plight shamed a nation into paying for AIDS care.

By 1996, when the quilt was displayed in Washington for the fifth time, it had grown from two panels, made by Jones and Joseph Durant, into a 50-ton behemoth stretching from the Washington Monument to Congress' door. Its fabric would extend more than 50 miles, if the grave-size panels (3 feet by 6 feet) were laid end to end. It represents one-fifth of the U.S. dead and bears the names of about 88,000 people from 50 countries.

Surviving the worst

Shirley and Jeff Powell of Bethel, Maine, lost both of their sons to AIDS. Kevin died in 1989 at age 21, and Christopher in 1991 at age 22. Both boys had hemophilia and needed clotting factors derived from human blood. Early on, clotting factor was often tainted with HIV, and both boys had become infected.

Shirley Powell first saw the quilt on display in Washington more than a decade ago. Kevin was in Georgetown University Hospital being treated for HIV. Powell took a break from Kevin's hospital room and walked among the quilt panels.

"It was absolutely overwhelming that so many people were affected by this," she says. "I'm sorry to say I didn't appreciate the beauty of it. But I was angry." Reagan was president that year, Powell notes, and he paid little attention to AIDS. "I wanted to scream, 'It's not only gays who have this!"

But she was afraid to speak up. In Arcadia, Fla., hatemongers tried to drive away the Ray family and their HIV-positive hemophiliac children by torching their home. Nevertheless, a family friend made the Powell boys a panel. For Kevin, a theater buff, it displayed the masks of tragedy and comedy; for Christopher, one of his favorite cars.

Yet the Powell family tragedy wasn't over. Soon after, one of the boys' cousins, also a hemophiliac, died of HIV. Afterward, the boys' cousins made a panel to honor all three. Powell's brother also had hemophilia. Three years ago, he, too, died of the virus. Yet Powell, though tearful, has little patience for self-pity. "There are worse stories than mine," she says.

Eileen Hawkins, a widow, was infected with HIV by her second husband. He had caught HIV in the 1970s while receiving an experimental blood plasma treatment for hepatitis B. The plasma must have carried HIV. Ironically, he had sought the hepatitis treatment before marrying Eileen, because he didn't want to give his bride-to- be a chronic disease. The newlyweds soon moved to Milford, Pa., into a "dream house" overlooking the Delaware River.

Years later, while being treated for cancer, Hawkins' husband was diagnosed with HIV. He died in 1990 at the age of 67. Eileen died of AIDS at age 65 in 1995.

Her brother Richard suggested they honor her with a landscape, Pasqua says, to portray "the beautiful place she had to leave because of this disease." Sister Linda helped pick out fabric; the grandchildren signed the panel in chalk so Pasqua could embroider their signatures on the design. Eileen's husband isn't named on the panel because his family didn't want it known that he had died of that disease.

Kevin McAndrews of Minneapolis decided to make a panel for Gene Zurek, his lover of 12 years, when he heard the quilt was coming to town. McAndrews chose to portray Zurek's favorite painting, Cezanne's Blue Vase. McAndrews had agreed to read the names of some of the dead, as is customary, during the display at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. And he agreed to take an overnight shift, which is how he found himself sitting in the bleachers of the near-empty stadium at 3 a.m., "watching people walking up and down the aisles weeping."

"It was like I was part of a very strange community I had never seen before," McAndrews says. "Kind of like coming out. You discover there's a great community out there that you didn't know about until you became part of it."

A day-and-night roll call

Cleve Jones now lives in Palm Springs, Calif. His HIV has been controlled by a drug regimen that still works for him. He has officially parted ways with the quilt, but not with activism.

On Friday, volunteers in Washington will begin reading the names of people who have died of AIDS. They will continue, day and night, until Sunday, when the community that Jones helped create marches on Washington to again demand increased access to AIDS drugs worldwide.
[Illustration]
PHOTO, Color, Jim Graham for USA TODAY; PHOTO, Color; Caption: In memory: Linda Pasqua-Blaisse, left, and Elaine Pasqua with their AIDS panel for their mother, Eileen Hawkins, depicting the view she had from her window.

- USA Today

n an experiment to show how inebriation can hinder safe sex practices, one University student was strapped with beer goggles and asked to place a condom onto a plastic penis.

"Alcohol is the number one high-risk behavior," said Elaine Pasqua, who spoke about AIDS at Hofstra USA Monday night. "After only five minutes of having one drink, the alcohol reaches the brain and greatly decreases a person's inhibitions."

To further illustrate the dangers of alcohol, Pasqua asked one student to wear goggles simulating a 0.08 blood alcohol level, which affected coordination. He was unable to walk in a straight line.

Since losing her mother and stepfather to AIDS, Pasqua has been spreading the message that AIDS is "everyone's disease."

Date rape drugs was another topic touched upon during the lecture, "Surviving the Party," in Hofstra USA Monday night. Pasqua said it only takes 15 minutes for these drugs to take effect. She suggested going to parties with trustworthy people and not leaving drinks unattended.

"This is the coward's way to have sex," Pasqua said. "They don't want to wine or dine you, they just want to get lucky."

Pasqua asked everyone to participate in a fluid exchange exercise, where students picked up a cup containing either water or sodium hydroxide, representing HIV. Since both liquids are clear, students did not know which they had.

"The fluid exchange exercise allowed students to experience and feel things that they would never get from a lecture," Pasqua said.

Students mixed their liquids with three others to simulate exchanging bodily fluids through sex. Afterward, each cup was tested with phenophaline; if the liquid turned pink, the student had contracted HIV. The number of cups containing sodium hydroxide, rose from four to 25.

"Think about how difficult it would be to tell someone you love that you have HIV," she said.

Pasqua said 65 million people have an incurable STD, 25 percent under 21 have an STD and nearly 40,000 cases of HIV arise each year in the United States.

"People will do and say what they want for their own sexual gain," Pasqua said. "One night can change your life. Don't blow the opportunities that lay ahead."
- Hofstra Chronical

Elaine Pasqua Is One Of Several Experienced Speakers That Help Students
Deal With Pressures On Campus.

Elaine Pasqua started speaking on the college circuit in 1997, in the
wake of losing her mother and step father to AIDS related
complications. "I decided to start speaking out about HIV and AIDS. I
started working locally with high schools and health departments
talking about the effect of AIDS on families."

Elaine then went to a nearby college in her hometown of Doylestown,
Pennsylvania where the Dean of Students mentored her. "He got me on the
national circuit n 1997. I had a program at that point called 'Living
and Loving in a World of AIDS.' I started to work more and more at
colleges and universities, mainly working with the Health and Wellness
centers and people in Residence Life and Greek Life. I started hearing
a lot of stories about college students who were changing their futures
and ruining their lives with one seemingly inconsequential decision
regarding partying. I had done my share of partying in my past and have
also seen a lot of my friends who felt they wasted their educations by
not studying enough and partying too much. They were living with a lot
of regrets and this led me to develop my next program entitled 'Sex and
Excess: Surviving The Party.'

Elaine ran with the theme that one consequential decision can change
the rest of our lives. "I want students to party. I am a realist, I
know that people are going to party in college and I want them to have
a good time, but at the same time I want students to learn to party
responsibly and with respect for one another. The focus on that program
is all the negative effects we see with alcohol abuse on college
campuses. Students are drinking to get drunk these days and they are
not drinking as responsibly as they once did. I want them to know and
understand all of the high risk consequences of alcohol abuse, whether
it is lower grade point averages, higher dropout rates, increases in
property damage, increased violence and sexual assaults, sex under the
influence and drunk driving. I spend a fair amount of time connecting
the use of alcohol and the date rape drugs. I talk about the date rape
drugs themselves and how to recognize if they have been slipped one and
how to get help in that event to help prevent themselves from becoming
victims."

Elaine also thoroughly covers sex under the influence and sexual
responsibility. "Sex can be life altering when we don't do it
responsibly. I talk about pregnancies, life altering sexually
transmitted diseases and how dangerous they can be. The kids call me
the sex lady a lot of times."

Elaine says she has a lot of fun with the students she speaks to. This
is by no means someone sitting in front of your student body droning on
endlessly about what to and not to do. It is someone who relates to
them and gets them involved. "My programs are completely interactive. I
am known for my interactive exercises where I get the audiences up out
of their chairs and on their feet to experience different things that a
standard lecture wouldn't bring forward. For example, I do a fluid
exchange exercise. It reflects how a sexually transmitted diseases can
spread through an unprotected population. The students are sharing
liquids in a cup. They pour their cups into one another and it pretty
well reflects the effects of having unprotected sex. Most of the cups
are filled with water, then there are a few that are filled with Sodium
Hydroxide, which represents HIV infected fluid. After they share their
fluids with two or three people we stop and examine everyone's cup. If
there cup turns a bright pink color, it means they have gotten some of
the sodium hydroxide and have (metaphorically) been infected. You get
them reacting very strongly and emotionally and then I process them
through it."

Elaine does additional role playing exercises such as a condom
demonstration with someone that has beer goggles on. This illustrates
how difficult it can be to apply a profilactic while under the
influence.

Pasqua certainly has a widely varied program, allowing her to go to the
same schools several different times and cover a lot of information
without being redundant. "I do a lot of repeat performances, oftentimes
through different venues at the same schools. I do a lot of freshmen
orientations. I am always very busy right as school starts back. I also
come in for alcohol awareness week. I tailor my programs specifically,
so I can emphasize alcohol and pull in a lot more information on that
if I am not doing program on other subjects. A lot of times schools
will bring me in around Valentine's Day for discussions on sexual
responsibility. I also have another program centered around World AIDS
Day. There are the wellness week themes in the spring which the schools
will bring me in for and I am doing a lot more programs on sexual
assault too. The challenge is that there is so much information to give
students with a limited amount of time. They can only sit for so long
and they have very busy lives. I sometimes wish that I could spend more
time with them. I love being with students and families, but I am a
people person, so that comes naturally. It is great to have one on one
time or to be in a smaller venue where students can really open up and
ask you questions because I find they do have a lot of them, especially
regarding sex. I find a lot of times they are embarrassed to ask some
questions in front of a larger audience.

"With the trend now of budget cutting in high school, a lot of students
come in now knowing even less than ever about human growth and
development issues that are vital to their survival in both college and
the real worlds. They are not getting the information they should in
high school at an early age."

Elaine is involved in the work she does least for the money. Her true
goal is a righteous one: she wants to help people. "It really started
off as a healing process for me. My step father contracted HIV from a
medical product that was made from plasma and then passed it on to my
mom unknowingly and they chose to keep their HIV infection a secret
because of the stigma and because they were afraid they would be
shunned. I watched them die without the love and support they deserved
to get and it made me want to speak out more. I wanted to teach people
that this was and is everybody's disease. So all my speaking for the
first two years was totally on a voluntary basis and it was a complete
healing process for me. Other members of my family chose to sweep this
under the rug and not deal with it and I feel that they did not heal as
well as I did. I felt that it was important to speak up. I love people
and I love being able to help people. I was in the health profession as
a dental hygienist years before so I always had that tendency to care
about public health and safety. I like to help people and I like to
educate people and it ended up turning into a livelihood. That was
purely a bonus. I truly feel like I have had the best of both worlds. I
tell people that the most painful experience of my life has also been
the most satisfying and rewarding experience of my life. I love working
with the kids, I love my job and I barely have a day where I come out
feeling like I am exhausted and not enjoying it. I always come out
feeling pumped up and good about the work I have done. I am very
lucky."

With someone that has such a broad range of knowledge and programs,
sometimes the biggest challenge for Elaine can be marketing herself to
prospective schools because of the diverse topics she can cover. If one
gets too specific, they are likely to turn off a part of their
potential client pool and for Elaine, this is nothing but a hindrance
in helping the people she cares about. "I tell most of my potential
clients that I have a program that touches on alcohol and sexual
responsibility. I give them as broad a topic as possible. Alcohol and
sex is a concern for a lot of campuses – just about all of them really,
so this is something that appeals to a lot of faculty and student
leaders as an avenue to really help the most people with a common
problem."

Elaine is self represented, so she does not have a powerhouse agency
behind her booking dates, but this is more of an advantage than a
drawback for her. "I think the important thing in working in this
business is having personal relationship and contacts on campus. Many
campuses use me repeatedly every year and I have interviewed them, so I
know a lot about what is going on on their campus. For many years, when
I asked campuses what their highest risk concern was, most of them said
alcohol abuse. In the past year and a half I have been seeing the focus
shifting more towards unprotected sex and alcohol going hand in hand,
which they of course do. Then date rape and the date rape drugs go hand
in hand as well. So when I am trying to present myself to schools that
don't know me, I try to paint a broader palette. I also tell them I can
do a program on HIV and AIDS if they prefer. There are also my talks
about sexual assault in general. I try to emphasize all of the things I
can offer them and let them go from there."

Elaine also informs her prospective buyers that she can custom tailor
her programs to fit the institution's needs. "I do a lot of programs at
Catholic universities and it can be very challenging to speak about
sexual responsibility in a faith based institution, but I will
specifically talk to them about all of the topics I can cover and then
get their permission to go into the specific different areas."

Elaine Pasqua continues to spread the message of awareness and
information and helps many students (and others) across the country in
preventing the life changing possibilities that she herself continues
to heal from with each person she speaks to, one at a time.

BOOK IT! For more information on bringing Elaine Pasqua's informative
and preventative programs to your campus, contact her at (215)
348-5355.

- Campus Activities Magazine

It was a small, intimate group that gathered Nov. 3 to hear Elaine Pasqua speak about living and loving with AIDS.

Pasqua's talk was enthusiastic and personal. She started off with a story about her mother, Eileen Hawkins, and her battle with the disease. Pasqua spoke about the secrecy and feelings of ostracism often accompanying an AIDS diagnosis.

"When people don't speak out about it, it gives you the impression that it's not in your community," Pasqua said.

Pasqua mentioned the most common reaction among people confronted with someone infected is the question of how the virus was contracted. But with more than 40,000 new cases a year in the United States alone, with the highest concentration in the country found in nearby Manhattan, simply hiding the issue doesn't make it go away.

"We all have lapses. We're human," Pasqua said. "But we shouldn't be judging people that have this disease. We should be treating these people with compassion."

Pasqua's impassioned talk certainly made an impression on the audience.

"I started out thinking that it was fruitless … but I think my attitudes have been altered dramatically … (because of) tonight, by Elaine's presentation," Julie Bergman, senior English/education major, said.

Part of Pasqua's talk was interactive. One activity showed how it takes only one sexual partner to transfer the disease. Each audience member had a medicine cup filled with a clear liquid; all but one had water in the cup. The one exception was sodium hydroxide (the "HIV virus"), which would turn the water pink when mixed with phenolphthalein. What started as one cup with the virus turned into 10 at the end of the experiment.

"It only takes one time to get infected," Pasqua said at the end of the activity.

Hannah Knight, sophomore special education/psychology major, was in charge of bringing Pasqua to the College. "She's come here before," Knight said. "I've heard lots and lots of good stories about her."

Knight decided to bring Pasqua to the College earlier than National AIDS Day, which is in December, with the mindset that every day should be seen as National AIDS Day. "There are going to be some events in December," Knight said. "(But) we wanted to spread it out so more people could attend." - The Signal The College of NJ

CHESTER — For Doylestown resident Elaine Pasqua, one panel stands out from among the more than 150 on the AIDS memorial quilt on display at Widener University.

“The view is from my mom’s living room,” she said, noting a picturesque display of mountains and trees. Pasqua created it, along with her brother and sister, in honor of her mother, Eileen Hawkins, who died of AIDS in 1995.

Hanging from large plywood frames, the quilt’s many sections are being displayed in honor of World AIDS Day Monday. The university also featured a lecture from Pasqua about living and loving in a world with AIDS.

The exhibition will be on display until Saturday.

It marks the third time parts of the quilt have been displayed at Widener, which previously hosted it in 2003 and 2005, according to Assistant Director of University Center Administration and Programs Mike Strong.

Strong said he hopes the quilt will raise awareness about AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes the illness, among students.

“It’s just a fact for students because they’ve grown up with AIDS,” Strong said. “We want students to know that, while we have medication now that could potentially make their lives better, they will still die. I don’t want them to forget that.”

The quilt was created in 1987 by San Francisco gay-rights activist Cleve Jones in the early days of the epidemic, which has claimed more than 25 million lives worldwide since 1981. Some 30 million people were living with the disease in 2007.

In the U.S., HIV is contracted through exposure to bodily fluids of those infected. While advances in drug therapies have made it a long-term manageable illness, there is still no cure.

The entire quilt now stands at more than 44,000 panels, and was last fully displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1996. Since then, sections of the quilt have been temporarily on loan to schools throughout the country.

“It’s a very healing experience,” said Pasqua.

In 1989, Pasqua’s mother and Pasqua’s stepfather were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Following her mother’s death, Pasqua has lectured at schools and universities to share her experience.

Along with her siblings, Pasqua said she spent a long time creating her mother’s panel. She noted that one tree took 40 hours to complete.

“It’s a wonderful way to heal and a wonderful way to honor someone that you love,” she said.

Some panels feature artwork and photographs of loved ones, while others contain Bible passages and poems. The panel for former Santa Barbara, Calif., resident Mitch Kincannon featured more than a dozen newspaper clippings detailing his struggle with AIDS, while the panel for Richard V. King Jr. used multiple clothes and fabrics to depict a sunset.

Others forgo traditional materials entirely to honor loved ones. The panel for Robert B. Laton displays a shirt and jacket, along with a brief biography. Another panel, made for Philip Sheley, displays a small bag filled with Sheley’s personal belongings, such as sheet music and his work nametag.

“It’s a good thing. People put a lot of effort into it to bring awareness” said Mike Ralston, a senior who works at the front desk of the University Center.

“A lot of people have been stopping by,” he added.

Juniors Keith Gilcrist and Anthony Rondolone both stopped to observe the quilt. They had both volunteered to set up the quilt over Widener’s Thanksgiving break.

“It’s great that people are honored like this,” Rondolone said. “You can hand out wrist bands and put up fliers, but it doesn’t really do anything. You walk through here, and it brings it to life. It makes it real.” - The Delaware Count