Tuesday, May 04, 1999
Volunteer award named for Kelly Chambers
UC recognizes AIDS group founder
BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The University of Cincinnati Community Service Programs Office has named its top volunteer award after Kelly Chambers, co-founder and president of a local pediatric AIDS support group.
Mrs. Chambers, 30, started the group For AIDS Children Every where (FACE) in January 1992, two months after her daughter, Crystal, died of AIDS. Mrs. Chambers has been HIV-positive since 1986 and has overseen an organization that has provided assistance and raised thousands of dollars for HIV-affected families in the Tristate.
The UC citation is now the Kelly Chambers Volunteer Award and will be presented annually to the student who makes a great contribution to the community through volunteer service.
“We wanted to name the award after someone the students know,” said Dave Holtzclaw, a UC graduate student and volunteer coordinator in the Community Service Programs Office. “It's a motivational thing for the students. This is someone many of them know and have worked with, and she is an example of the difference one person can make in the community.”
The Community Service Programs Office is in the Department of Student Activities and Organizations and coordinates student volunteerism at UC. Several hundred students have performed more than 5,000 hours of service through the office this year, and another 600 participate in annual cleanups and other events.
UC volunteers have helped at FACE's annual Christmas party for infected and affected children and will help this year at FACE's picnic and outing to Sea World in Aurora, Ohio.
They have also contributed clothing and food to FACE, which has a storeroom and office in the basement of Holmes Hospital.
The Cincinnati Enquirer profiled Mrs. Chambers in March and will write about her regularly. She has had full-blown AIDS since 1994 and lives with her husband, Clarence Chambers, and their adopted daughter in Cleves.
Newspaper readers have responded by donating more than $15,000 to FACE since the first story appeared.
Mrs. Chambers said the organization is in constant need of food, clothing and cash donations because it serves an underserved group of people.
“What we have received has dwindled down,” she said. “What we have goes right out the door to our families and kids.”
To donate, write FACE at P.O. Box 19783, Cincinnati 45219, or call 584-3571.
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Volunteer award named for Kelly Chambers
