Countywide : AIDS Care Receives $10,000 Donation

A donation from a private foundation will buy a year’s supply of medicine for a local agency that cares for people with AIDS and HIV.

The New Jersey-based Rose Foundation recently gave AIDS Care $10,000 to pay for medication and help house people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, said Executive Director Edie Brown of AIDS Care.

“Medication is very expensive,” Brown said. “This money will help us rest a little easier about being able to help everyone.”

About one-third of the organization’s funding comes from donations, Brown said. AIDS Care saw 200 clients in 1992 and had a $5,000 medication budget, Brown said. She expects those figures to double this year.

Rose Foundation founder Pamela Wygod, who lives in New Jersey but runs a horse-breeding farm with her husband in Buellton, Calif., said she heard about AIDS Care from a friend who volunteers with the organization.

“I have had a lot of friends over the years who have been diagnosed with AIDS and died because of it,” Wygod said. “I feel if there is anything we can do to help make it a little bit easier for someone, we are happy to do that.”

AIDS Care is the first Ventura County organization to receive funding from the 2-year-old foundation, Wygod said.

The foundation’s largest project is helping poor people buy medicine in Knox County, Ky., Wygod said.