Our Mission

If I were to title my autobiography now, it would be “Who Knew So Few T-Cells Could Do So Much?” In January of 2001, I was told I had 60 t-cells and a viral load over 300,000. Conventional wisdom at the time told me that I had barely two years to live. After an array of medical problems, in 2006, I felt as if I had my life back. A few months later, I visited the San Antonio AIDS Foundation. Upon arrival, it was as if I traveled back to AIDS 1991. I then realized that in spite of the hardships I had endured, I was lucky. I have opportunities that my HIV brothers and sisters do not have – and it was then that the activist in me was born.

That moment in San Antonio inspired me to create the Christmas Goody Bag Project for the residents of their AIDS hospice. Everyone should look forward to Christmas, to the sense of love that it brings, especially people spending their final days in an AIDS Hospice. Word caught on, and my project took on a life of its own. Companies from all over the country donated “goodies” for the residents.  The Christmas Project lives on, as SwagForGood.org. It now includes the residents of Joseph’s House in Washington, D.C.