Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
A small crowd gathered at the West Nipissing Community Health Centre (WNCHC) on Thursday morning, December 4, to prepare for another annual Red Scarf Day. Once again, WNCHC staff put together a short ceremony, inviting Nipissing First Nation (NFN) Elders to give a prayer and offer a song, and elected officials to say a few words. The focus of Red Scarf Day is to bring awareness to HIV and AIDS by highlighting World AIDS Day December 1st and Indigenous AIDS Awareness Week during the first week of December. To that end, staff and volunteers of the WNCHC went out to deliver approximately 150 red scarves throughout West Nipissing and NFN.
According to Anik St-Aubin, WNCHC health promoter and one of the project leads, the Red Scarf Project relies on local groups for its continued success. She stresses that there wouldn’t be a project at all without the Knitting Circle volunteers spending almost all year making the titular red scarves. Another important group is the AIDS Committee of North Bay & Area, who were unable to send a spokesperson to the ceremony this year but provided their usual contribution of printed tags to attach to each scarf. Those tags contain information on HIV and AIDS, as well as some details on where to get help, more information, testing or treatment.
West Nipissing mayor Kathleen Thorne Rochon and NFN Councillor Samantha Stevens said a few words during the ceremony, then jointly tied the first Red Scarf in front of city hall in Sturgeon Falls. The mayor noted the 37th anniversary of World AIDS Day. “It is an opportunity to speak openly about HIV, to encourage everyone to know their status, and to call for the removal of all barriers that prevent people from accessing HIV testing, treatment, and support,” she stated.
