Michael Connett of Covington tries to improve the world around him where he can.

He spreads mulch around plants in a paper-thin sliver of land, hoping to create a front yard. He hangs windsocks and angels and rainbows to turn a bland brick wall into colorful art.

He also tries to better the world for others being ravaged by HIV/AIDS.

Connett, 49, was diagnosed HIV positive in October 1991. He has been living with AIDS since 1996. And he does what he can for others like him.

He has established a living trust, with the funds designated to go to AIDS organizations after he dies.

The windows of his home that face the street are plastered with educational material about HIV/AIDS - including a poster with a cow wearing galoshes that says, "Wear your rubbers."

He is on no medications for the disease. There is a waiting list for the pharmaceuticals, and he wanted to give up his spot on the drug program for somebody younger.

"In the back of my mind, that adds a little more urgency to the things I try to do," he says.

Now Connett is doing his best to coordinate a local event for the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial on May 16.

"We have to let the people living with AIDS in this area know that people here still care," he says.

On that day, thousands of individuals - more than 3,000 communities in 85 countries - will participate in the world's largest and oldest annual grass-roots HIV/AIDS event.

The memorial is designed to honor the memory of those lost to HIV/AIDS, show support for those living with the disease and raise awareness. (www.candlelightmemorial.org)

Connett was inspired to initiate a candlelight memorial here after seeing the memorials in Batavia for Pfc. Matt Maupin, the Clermont County Army reservist being held hostage in Iraq.

"Don't the 28.9 million who have died of AIDS merit some show of support from this community?" Connett asks. "Don't they deserve something, too?"

Connett had hoped to launch a grand event: people from all over Greater Cincinnati holding candles on the Purple People Bridge, which links Newport and Cincinnati. Memorial luminaria flickering along the span. Representatives of Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati AIDS organizations, handing out educational materials. Free AIDS testing.

The problem is that he's getting very little help.

Local AIDS organizations, which rely on very little government money and charitable donations, have too little funds to offer their support.

Connett has little funds himself.

Most of all, there's way too much complacency and apathy when it comes to AIDS. This disease is still a very real threat - not just to one neighborhood or community, but to everyone. There's just no drive or desire to discuss it anymore.

"There's a dinner here or a support group there, but things aren't like they used to be," Connett says.

"Everything might not work out this year, but that's OK," he says, hopefully. "But next year when we say we're going to light up the Purple People Bridge, we'll really light the sucker up."

The theme for the international candlelight memorial event is "Turning Remembrance into Action." It means doing things like Connett does - print a poster about the event and hang it on a window, light a candle and stand on the Purple People Bridge, tie a red ribbon somewhere.

Most of all, never stop talking about the devastating impact of this disease.

On May 16, Connett might be the only person standing on the bridge, remembering those who died.

But sometimes that's all it takes.

For information, www.mwcltonline.org/CandlelightMemorial.html.

E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com