Christopher Pazdernik (they/them/any) has been involved with AIDS Run & Walk Chicago for more than 10 years, first as an individual participant, then as a team leader, and now as a CommunityDirect partner through their work with Season of Concern.  With extensive experience in the Chicago theater scene, Pazdernik also fundraises each year on their birthday for AIDS Foundation Chicago through Belting For Life, a concert featuring stars of Chicago theater performing beloved classics drawn from movies and Broadway musicals.  Now working as a Managing Director with Season of Concern, Pazdernik met with us to talk about their participation in the CommunityDirect program with AIDS Run & Walk, and their commitment to the HIV movement and Chicago theater arts. 

CommunityDirect consists of AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) partner organizations who register teams with AIDS Run & Walk and raise funds, over 90% of which are returned to the partner organization.  This unique fundraising model enables a broad swath of the HIV sector in Chicagoland to benefit from AIDS Run & Walk through direct fundraising, community engagement, and increased visibility.  The model is reflective of the collaborative and community-centered nature of the HIV movement.  If you haven’t registered yet for AIDS Run & Walk Chicago, we encourage you to join us at Soldier Field on Saturday, September 27.  At aidsrunwalk.org, you can register and start your own fundraiser, and you can donate to Season of Concern’s fundraising page, or support other Community Direct teams. 


Patty Conway, AFC: 
Can you tell me a little bit about your background and what brought you to be involved with AIDS Run & Walk Chicago? 

Chris Pazdernik: 
I have been involved with AIDS Run & Walk for over a decade now. I started by captaining a team of my friends and colleagues. 
And then this year, I actually started a new job as Managing Director at Season of Concern, which is one of the CommunityDirect partners at AIDS Run & Walk Chicago. 

So I’ve brought along former teammates and my new colleagues onto the Season of Concern team to make a “Super Team,” I guess I’m calling it. And I'm very excited to bring my past experience and leverage that now for Season of Concern. 
 
AFC: 
And so through Season for Concern, and you also support AIDS Foundation Chicago with the annual Belting for Life event – how does this work dovetail with the goals and mission of AIDS Foundation Chicago and and the Run Walk event? 

CP: 
Oh my gosh, in so many ways. It all started when I was diagnosed with HIV in 2009, and it took a couple years processing all that. But once I had kind of gotten my feet under me in terms of my medical care and everything, I really started wanting to give back, and two things kind of started independently, but within the same year. The first was me, sitting on the train, and seeing a sign for AIDS Run & Walk and thinking, “I should do that!” And so, I started my team, and then I started Belting for Life, my birthday concert, because I've worked in the theater industry as long as I've been in Chicago. So that's where I have a lot of friends and connections. And, people love a concert for a cause!  So, it felt like these were the things I could do to give back – and I’ve been working on them for the past 10 years. 

Because I'm involved in the theater community, I was very familiar with Season of Concern, and Season of Concern started as a primarily AIDS-focused organization in the late 80s as a response to the AIDS crisis. Over time, it has evolved to being sort of a broader safety net, offering emergency financial assistance to anyone in the Chicago theater community. But always honoring the initial founding of the organization, we still do maintain relationships and provide small grants to direct care HIV/AIDS organizations. 

Season of Concern has had a team at the AIDS Run Walk for a long time. I got a little bit more involved with Season of Concern during the pandemic when I produced a virtual benefit concert called Chicago Offstage. It was kind of a variety show featuring a lot of theater folks performing, or being interviewed, etcetera, to raise money for Season of Concern. So by the time I applied for the job at Season of Concern, I'd already produced one successful event for them and had the experience of my AIDS Run & Walk team, and my own benefit concert Belting For Life that now benefits the AIDS Foundation, as well as all of my creative endeavours and work within the Chicago theater community. When the when the job got posted at Season of Concern, I think six people sent it to me that the first day that it came out, because it really does sort of dovetail - the two things I'm most passionate about: theater and advocacy, and specifically for HIV/AIDS organizations. 
 
AFC: 
It seems like there’s a common thread in your work, of gathering people, even in virtual settings during the pandemic. You bring people together in the service of a cause. I’m curious, what are your thoughts about the power of that, of being together, of coming together?  Especially on the scale of something like AIDS Run & Walk Chicago, we might have thousands of people there – what does that mean for our movement and our community? 
 
CP: 
I think building a kind of support system is only possible through community and bringing folks together and, under the current [presidential] administration, it seems more important than ever that we are there for each other, because more formal means of support might not continue to exist in the same way that they used to. 
And visibility, I think, is another key component to the positivity of bringing people together. Because when you see thousands of people at an event like the AIDS Run Walk or even just a few hundred folks at a concert or something, you don't feel quite as alone anymore, right? You know that you have people and organizations that you can count on. And I think it's all leading to a better quality of life, really. It's really one of the hallmarks of a healthy, civilized society, to gather together with and for one another. 

And I think especially when so many of our vulnerable communities are under attack – people of color, our trans and gender non-conforming siblings, immigrants and people living with or vulnerable to HIV – we’re stronger together, right? And the more that we can present a united front, I think the more power we have, not only in standing up to this administration, but at minimum making sure that we show up for each other. 
 
AFC:
Thank you for saying that. Thinking about presenting a united front – the CommunityDirect Program invites partner organizations to fundraise in teams at AIDS Run & Walk Chicago, which is largely organized by AFC, and CommunityDirect partners then keep the vast majority of their funds raised.  So that's sort of an unusual model, right? A lot of large organizations might engage partner agencies with fundraising events, but not necessarily allow that diffusion of funds raised in the same way. What is the significance of that to you? 
 
CP: 
I think it's a beautiful model that allows organizations to really advocate for themselves and the people they serve in in a way that they know will benefit them, while supporting AFC’s overall mission and the organizations’ shared goals. It’s also great for increasing the visibility and the presence of the partner organizations. I think this fundraising model engages the CommunityDirect teams in a much more tangible way than it would if the model wasn't in place. 

It's empowering to know that, by helping support this event, we can help ourselves, and then therefore help others.  It's like a cycle of support, that builds strong partnerships and a sense of community.  I have described it often to people, especially in the entertainment community, that there's a network of support.  What’s the phrase - a rising tide lifts all boats, right?  So if we're all helping each other, then it's not so much like “this is mine, and that's yours,” it’s like, “look at what is ours.”  Only more good can come from that kind of collaboration. 
 
AFC: 
This year's theme for AIDS Run and Walk is Resist, Restore, Renew. And I want to know, what does that mean for you personally, and how is that impacting your engagement and excitement around the event? 
 
CP: 
I think to me, this year more than ever, the slogan it feels like a call to action. It's not just a motto or a tagline that feels good. And here’s my English minor coming out -  when you take three active verbs, it starts to sound like a command, right? And it's all things that, again, given the current administration, are so important. We have to resist the targeting of our vulnerable populations.  We have to.  But doing that work also means you have to take time to restore for yourself. And it feels like at this point in history we're renewing a lot of long-term efforts, because opposition always sort of requires that. You have to double down. 
 
AFC: 
Why do you think it's important for our community to come out and support at AIDS Run and Walk this year? 

CP:
I think it's always important to show up for the communities that are served from this event, especially the most vulnerable among us. It's never not important to show up and show your solidarity, and in a visible, tangible way.  Not just paying lip service, not just posting the memes on Instagram, but showing up, which given our current [presidential] administration, it's just more important than ever. If we say that we want to build strong communities and we want to support our friends and neighbors, this is one tangible way that you can.  You can put word into deed, as it were, and really make a change. The funds that are raised here are just more critical now than ever, and every year it feels so good knowing that, however small each of our individual parts, collectively we make a huge difference.  And collectively we make a lot of great work possible, that AIDS Foundation and all of the CommunityDirect teams like Season of Concern are doing. It's kind of incredible when you stop and think about it. 

AFC:  
I agree. I'm so looking forward to this year's event.  Is there anything else that you'd want to add or make sure that you get a chance to say before we conclude? 

CP:
Yes. I think the thing that keeps me coming back every year is - it sounds so trite, but – it’s the feeling of helping others and and showing up for and with all the different communities – communities that you may be a part of, or communities that you want to support even if you don't necessarily belong to them. And it's something that we just honestly need a lot more of. Finding times that we can unite again and unite in person, we lost so much of that during the pandemic. Gosh, the feeling of everybody together on that lawn at Soldier Field is kind of addictive. It’s a feeling of euphoria, the amount of goodwill in one place and knowing that everybody takes a little slice of that goodwill back home with them.  It’s just beautiful. 

I’d like to add that if anybody wants to get involved in AIDS Run & Walk and they're not sure where to start, everybody is welcome on the Season of Concern team. We're open to everyone.  But especially theater lovers!