Boston AIDS Walk Founder Liz Page Celebrates 20th Anniversary

On Sunday, June 1, the 29th annual Boston AIDS Walk and 5k Run will flood the streets of Boston with thousands of people walking and running to raise the $1 million fundraising goal that AIDS Action Committee has set for this year. Over nearly three decades, the Walk has become a landmark event, raising more money than any other fundraiser for the oldest and largest HIV/AIDS organization in New England.

For the person responsible for creating the first ever AIDS Walk in Boston, a woman by the name of Liz Page, the continued success of this event is cause for celebration and a healthy dose of pride.

In fact, the LGBT activist, savvy businesswoman, wife and mother has much to celebrate and take pride in these days, including the twentieth anniversary and expansion of her sought-after event planning business, Liz Page Associates.

April 15 marked twenty years of planning events and helping to raise millions of dollars for organizations like AIDS Action Committee, Greater Boston PFLAG, Rosie's Place, Best Buddies and the New England Holocaust Museum. The money raised through LPA's standout shindigs has enabled nonprofits in the Boston area and all around New England to keep their doors open and continue with the important work at hand. Now, with two decades of hard work and happy clients, Liz Page Associates is celebrating their anniversary with a revamped website and an expansion into the corporate market.

"As we celebrate 20 remarkable years, our focus is firmly on the future," said Page, Principal of Liz Page Associates. "Whether in the nonprofit sector or the corporate world, I firmly believe in the importance of building loyalty and passion for a cause, a brand, a product, or a company."

Liz Page Associates' stunning events, some of which can be previewed on the website, have revived and revitalized many a small, sleepy fundraiser and often helped their clients reach record-breaking numbers. It is no wonder then, that her impressive and growing corporate client list includes names like BNY Mellon, Citizens Bank and Constant Contact.

When asked about her secret for success Page sums it up in one word: passion.

"The right event ignites passion and creates results," said Page. "In the nonprofit world that passion leads to open minds, open hearts and open wallets. In business, passion leads to a culture that employees want to embrace and that has a direct impact on the bottom line."

While the bottom line undoubtedly matters in corporate affairs, it is not the only thing that matters. And Liz Page Associates has no intention of turning their backs on the philanthropy, charity and general good that has made the firm so unique and successful all these years.

"Companies are doing a lot of good," said Page. "They need to talk about the good work they do."

With people working longer hours -- often late into the evening from home after the 9 to 5 has ended -- the workplace, said Page, has become a much bigger part of employees' lives. It is important for them to feel valued, to see the good that their company is involved in, and to feel a real connection.

Talking to Page, you can see that she genuinely loves what she does. And she's undeniably good at it. But the path to becoming the socially-conscious event planning superstar that she is today began long before her twenty-year tenure running Liz Page Associates.

For Page, this path was forged and solidified years earlier, when she signed up to volunteer with Boston's AIDS Action Committee.

"I lost a dear friend to AIDS. He was dying and I didn't realize it," admitted Page. "I felt I had let him die alone, and I had to do something about it. So I showed up at AIDS Action and asked what they needed."

As it turned out, AAC, a tiny grassroots organization then, needed help fundraising. Having a background in producing special events for the Worcester Art Museum, Page accepted the challenge and got to work on what would ultimately become the organization's largest, longest running, and most lucrative fundraiser. They called it The AIDS Walk Boston, "From All Walks of Life."

"It was important to put that message out there," Page said of the title's significance. "It was a very isolating disease. People didn't understand it."

It was this lack of understanding that led to the heartbreaking stigmatization of the LGBT population and to people living with AIDS not receiving the care that they needed and deserved.

"People didn't want to touch or care for people with AIDS," said Page. "There was a lot of fear and homophobia in those early days."

The first ever AIDS Walk "From All Walks of Life" yielded 4,000 people, a feat in itself given the stigma that AIDS carried. At that time, she couldn't believe so many people were stepping out in public to be associated with AIDS and supporting AIDS efforts, Page says. But by the fifth year, the AIDS Walk had grown to 35,000 participants.

In each of those first five years of enormous growth, there was Page, behind the scenes, ensuring the event went off without a hitch and was bigger, better and more financially productive than the year before. Page notes that in the early days, with no money or big name to help garner support, the success of the AIDS Walks was created by the many AAC volunteers who gave and gave, turning slim resources into magic.

"We were all crazy and fabulous and so out and flamboyant," Page says of the camaraderie of those working for the cause in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. "It was both tragically sad and joyously exuberant."

In the five years that she ran the Walk, Page helped AIDS Action Committee rise to new heights, raising more money than ever before and becoming one of the most vital and significant organizations in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Page, now comfortably settled in Milton, MA with wife Marianne, daughter Chloe, and Liz Page Associates headquarters, maintains a special place in her heart for the AIDS Walk Boston and AIDS Action.

"It is one of the greatest honors in my life to have been able to be a part of it."