St. Petersburg – About 100 prominent St. Petersburg residents and volunteers gathered at the LGBT Welcome Center on Central Avenue Dec. 1 for a candlelight vigil and reception commemorating the 25th Anniversary of World AIDS Day.
The vigil was the final event in an art installation which created a mile and a half long virtual red ribbon on Central Avenue by wrapping 173 trees in red cloth. The installation featured an opportunity for visitors to write messages of remembrance and inspiration for those touched by the epidemic.
The project was the brainchild of local artist Jim Buresch, who dubbed it “Rock It Red St. Petersburg.” It took about three dozen volunteers, many of them provided by Bank of America, two days to wrap the trees.
“I lost a brother to AIDS early on,” said Margaret Handlin, a Bank of America volunteer who spent most of Saturday and Sunday helping to install the project.
Handlin, who lives and works in Tampa, said she had trouble finding something on her side of the bay to help her remember her brother on World AIDS Day. When she found out about this installation and that her employer had signed on as a sponsor providing volunteers, she signed up right away.
“My brother’s birthday would have been Nov. 17, so it had even more meaning to me,” she said.
Audrey Wood was the coordinator of volunteers. Wood is a member of the Kenwood Neighborhood Association and said she was impressed with the passion that Buresch had shown when he had approached the group for support. She said she had no reservations about working with Buresch, even though he has only been a St. Petersburg resident for a year and a half.
Buresch came to St. Pete via Seattle and prior to that San Francisco. He grew up in West Virginia.
“St. Petersburg is such a welcoming community that even if someone is new, when we see that they are doing something that will benefit our city, there is tremendous support. My biggest reward has been seeing Jim’s vision become a reality. I was glad for the opportunity to sit on the steering committee. While coordinating the volunteers was a big job, I met a lot of really great people as a result,” said Wood. “I’ve been concerned that it seems with the progress we’ve made with the disease that it has kind of fallen off the radar.
“I wanted to be able to do something to bring it back into the public eye and bring attention to the fact that there is still much work to do.”
Buresch said that both the City of St. Petersburg and the arts community of St. Pete were extremely supportive from the beginning when he began sharing his vision. Buresch approached the city’s economic development department first. They helped him find other appropriate city officials and also assisted in getting an official City Proclamation drafted for the event.
“Without trashing Seattle in any way, I have to say St. Petersburg is a much more supportive and a much more accepting community,” said Buresch. “And, I may have left my heart in San Francisco, but I found it again here in St. Petersburg.”
Among those in attendance were three St. Petersburg City Council members, including Darden Rice, Wengay Newton and Karl Nurse. St. Petersburg’s LGBT-friendly mayor Rick Kriseman was out of the country on a trade mission. He is expected to participate in the Welcome Center’s official ribbon cutting on Dec. 12.
Buresch said that the support he received from the St. Petersburg arts community was critical to the success of the event.
“Without the help of John Collins with the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, this installation would not have happened,” said Buresch. “He wanted to be sure there was a reputable not-for-profit involved where any funds raised in support of the project could be handled. “I wanted to be sure there was plenty of transparency.”
Buresch also praised Larry Biddle from the St. Petersburg LGBT Welcome Center.
“He became my sounding board and his input proved invaluable,” Buresch said. “Often he would advise me on what to say and to whom I should say it.”
Buresch said his biggest disappointment was that he had to reduce the size of the fabric covering the trees from 60 to 45 inches.
“That meant that the impact wasn’t as great as I had perhaps hoped, but it still was impressive,” he said.
He hopes that if he does this same installation next year, he will be able to raise more money to cover those costs.
His biggest joy this year?
“Hands down the volunteers,” he said. “They were the ones that really took my vision and made it a reality. I’m grateful to each and every one of the people who spent their weekend putting this together.”
Buresch, who has lived with HIV himself for 23 years, said that his art gives his life more meaning.
“With what amounted to a death sentence when I was diagnosed it, became hard for me to focus or plan for anything in the future.,” said Buresch. “Everyone needs to have a purpose in their life. My art gives me that purpose and direction.”
