By Cristy Shauck
Former high school principal Dushan "Dude" Angius of Los Altos and former secretary Debbie Runions of Tennessee met at a national AIDS leadership conference in Washington, D.C., three years ago. Each attended the meeting to gather information and to rally around a common cause: tackling a deadly virus that has affected both of their families.
Angius and Runions returned to their respective homes not only with what they sought, but also with a friendship that is bringing comfort and awareness to their lives and the lives of others.
Both Angius and Runions will speak at an AIDS Symposium tomorrow at the Sunnyvale Hilton. The event, organized by Sunnyvale's two Rotary clubs, is intended to educate Rotary members and the general public about the deadly virus.
The inspiration for Rotarian efforts to tackle the AIDS epidemic worldwide can be traced to one man: Dushan Angius. Soon after his son Steve revealed in 1988 that he had AIDS, Angius became president of the Los Altos chapter of the Rotary Club.
"The family didn't want Steve to die of this disease and that be the end of it," his father said.
At his first meeting as president, Dude told club members about Steve's illness. "We organized a task force which came up with the idea of educating every Rotarian in the world about AIDS," Angius said.
Angius' task force wanted to make an educational film that included an interview with Steve, but by the time the film crew arrived in late 1989, Steve was too ill to participate. The film's primary footage of Steve shows the former 225-pound football player at 140 pounds, being carried down the hall of the family home on a stretcher by emergency personnel. He died at the hospital that same day. He was 32.
Instead of focusing on Steve's death, The Los Altos Story tells, documentary-style, why the Los Altos Rotary Club chose to get involved in the fight against AIDS. In it, individuals share their stories.
A month after Steve's death, Walter Singer, known around town as "Mr. Los Altos," tells a Rotarian group and film viewers how he contracted the AIDS virus from a blood transfusion. Singer says he and his wife sold their business because they were afraid customers would boycott their stores. Afterward, subdued, teary-eyed men and women hug him.
Greg Betz, who transferred into the Los Altos chapter of Rotary, announced that he has AIDS at a club meeting.
"We expect to provide a copy to all 25,000 Rotary clubs in 154 countries," Angius says. "It's been televised nationally several times and won the George F. Peabody award for excellence in broadcasting."
Sunnyvale Rotary clubs purchased 150 copies to give away at the symposium.
"The Rotary AIDS project is one of the few corporate efforts that addresses the needs of people with HIV," Runions says. "The Los Altos Story is one of the most healing approaches to the virus I've seen. It touches America."
Sunnyvale Rotarian Donn Wadley says that, although he knew people were dying of AIDS, he didn't get involved until Angius shared his family's tragedy. "I respect Dude and [wife] Barbara and want to do this to further their work," Wadley says.
When Angius asked Runions, now a representative of President Clinton's Advisory Council on AIDS and the Family, to participate in tomorrow's symposium, she quickly accepted.
Runions, 46, says she was infected with HIV during a single sexual encounter with a longtime friend in 1989, the same year that Steve Angius died. She was officially diagnosed with AIDS in December 1994.
"Dude has offered emotional support over the years," says Runions, who quit her job with a pro-business lobbying firm to become a full-time AIDS educator. Despite her illness, Runions gave 140 lectures last year. She will deliver the keynote speech at the Feb. 8 Rotary symposium, for which she and other speakers have volunteered their time.
In addition to Runions, speakers include: Beverly Bradley, a nationally recognized AIDS educator from San Diego; Susan Daniel of Advanced Micro Devices; and other local professionals. Each will provide information on topics ranging from AIDS in the workplace to the special needs of youth.
Area businesses have stepped in to help defray costs, which symposium co-chair Flo Stafford anticipates will be about $5,000. The Rotary clubs expect turn a small profit, which be given to the Hollister Rotary Club, which plans to sponsor an AIDS symposium on March 2 at the Ridgemont Country Club, she said.
American Airlines and Southwest Airlines are each footing the bill for a speaker's flight, and the Ramada Inn of Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale is providing rooms to out-of-town speakers, according Stafford. Other contributors include Applied Materials, Fish Market Restaurants and Hewlett-Packard.
"We expect 150 to 200 people for the luncheon and 30 to 40 people for the entire program," Stafford says. "You always wonder if anyone will come. People don't want to talk about this disease. But it's getting to the point where we all know somebody with AIDS."
According to the ARIS Project of Santa Clara County, more than 10,000 people in the county may be infected with HIV. As of Oct. 16, 1995, more than 2,250 residents have been diagnosed with AIDS, and more than 1,400 county residents have died from AIDS.
AIDS is the number-one killer of Americans aged 24 to 44, the people who are the work force, Runions said.
By organizing a symposium, the Sunnyvale Main and Sunnyvale Sunrise Rotary Clubs are doing what Angius would like all Rotary clubs to do: Take leadership roles in their own communities to develop awareness programs designed to prevent HIV infection.
"This symposium is patterned after the one Los Altos presented in April 1994. We are circulating a tape of that project, AIDS: the Community Challenge, and a how-to booklet for organizing symposiums to Rotary clubs as well," Angius said.
Steve Angius had a loving family support system, but many AIDS patients die alone, according to his father.
Runions hopes the symposium will increase the public's awareness of the virus itself, encourage compassion and challenge others to become involved in the lives of people with HIV and AIDS.
"Nobody needs to struggle and be in pain alone. Nobody needs to die alone," Runions says. "I believe that those of us who have the disease are here to be spiritual teachers; the ones who don't have the disease are healers. The disease is so complex a social and spiritual issue that we must address problems we don't want to examine.
"I will tell my story," continues Runions, who is the mother of two adult children. "Many believe it's a disease belonging to socially marginal people, but that's not true; it can happen to anyone. I'm here to provide a face to AIDS which people can relate to."
At this point, Runions has a T-cell count of 177 (a healthy person has an average count of 1,000). She plans to travel with a friend whose count is 66.
Runions is working on a book about her experience with AIDS, Living in the Leap. "I would like to live long enough to see my daughter married and hold my grandchildren, but that isn't likely to happen."
AIDS: Our Community Challenge will be held Feb. 8 from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Sunnyvale Hilton Hotel. A registration fee of $25 at the door ($20 in advance) includes lunch and a copy of the award-winning video, The Los Altos Story. For more information, contact Myrna Klokow at 738-8708 or Flo Stafford at 245-2201.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 7, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.