AHF: Rose Parade’s ‘Global Face of AIDS’ Float Riders to Decorate Tournament’s Only All Rose Entry

AIDS Healthcare Foundation invites the media to watch as their five global representatives help construct AHF’s 2013 Tournament of Roses parade submission, which highlights their worldwide effort to eradicate HIV/AIDS through testing, treatment, and advocacy

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation:

What:	Media Availability – AHF Tournament of Roses Construction
When:	FRIDAY, December 28^th 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Where:	Irwindale, CA – for exact location, please email [e-mail]
Who:	AHF Float riders from around the world, AHF President Michael Weinstein (TBD)
B-ROLL:	AHF international clients decorating the 2013 Tournament of Roses float “The Global Face of AIDS” and interviews
CONTACTS:	Ged Kenslea, +1.323.308.1833 or mobile [phone]	[e-mail]
	Kyveli Diener, +1.323.308.1821, ext. 1805 or mobile [phone]	[e-mail]

For their second annual submission in Pasadena’s New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is highlighting the global expansiveness of their fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS by featuring “The Global Face of AIDS,” a float that represents the 28 countries where the organization provides access to treatment, testing, and advocacy in adherence with the parade theme of “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” Standing in front of cutouts of their representative continents will be five AHF representatives of all ages from around the world who are not only living with HIV but also actively fighting the epidemic by partnering with AHF.

The five riders are Francis Xavier De Melo, 48, of India; Marcos Ledesma, 36, of Mexico; Grace Mugisha Akampumuza, 47, and Mariam Nazziwa, 9, both from Uganda; and 28-year-old Hydeia Broadbent of the United States. These global ambassadors will cruise down Colorado Avenue on the only purely rose-covered float of the parade, which also features a giant Red Ribbon, a massive towering globe, and tall cutouts of each of the world’s continents.

A multitude of the roses on the giant Red Ribbon – the iconic international symbol for AIDS awareness – will be designated “Memory Flowers” that members of the public can have dedicated to a loved one by texting “FLOWER” and the loved one’s name to 20222. That text will make an automatic $10 donation to AHF and the designated person’s name will be inscribed on the water vial of a rose on the float.

A MEDIA AVAILABILITY will be held at the warehouse where the float is being constructed in Irwindale on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28^th from 5:30 – 7:00 pm. All of the riders will be present and available for interview about their involvement with AHF in their home countries, and there will be B-roll opportunity of the riders helping to decorate the float with hundreds of thousands of roses.

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 183,000 individuals in 28 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare.