Pediatric AIDS benefit at Carson High

On the mug is a teddy bear. And under the bear is a boy's name and across the bear's belly is the name "Bumby" - bestowed on the bear by the boy who once loved him.

The little boy was Zack, and he was born in 1982, in need of medical help. Some thought him quite gifted the way he drew trains and bears, as if nothing else much mattered in the world. He also drew pictures of Bumby, a bear who was always near at his side while also residing deep in his heart.

"Bumby was a little stuffed panda bear," said Maud Naroll, a Carson City resident and relative of the boy's. "Zack never knew there were two Bumbys so that one could be washed."

Zack's doctors wanted to see the boy survive, and they did everything they could for him. They gave him blood to keep him alive when his treatments made his own supply low, but the life-giving force was anything but.

"He was born before they were testing the blood supply," Naroll said. "By the time he recovered from all the things he was born with, he was diagnosed with pediatric AIDS, and, of course, there wasn't any treatment then."

Zack died in 1987, and since then, testing of blood for AIDS has occurred throughout the country. Carson City's Brewery Arts Center put on pediatric AIDS benefits in the 1990s to raise money for children like Zack.

And Carson High School Senior Sarah Stadler, realizing the Brewery Arts Center had stopped, decided to put on her own fundraising event.

It is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in Senator Square of Carson High School. The 18-year-old is just hundreds of dollars short of her $2,000 donation goal for Northern Nevada Hopes, a nonprofit agency in Reno that gives outpatient assistance to Northern Nevada and eastern Californian residents, including children, diagnosed HIV-positive.

The benefit's theme is 'Love is a Cure," and many of the 20 groups performing in the talent show feature love themes in their acts.

"Since we have to do a senior project (at Carson High School), I wanted to do one that was bigger than myself and do something for the community," said Stadler, who once performed in BAC's pediatric AIDS fundraisers.

"Love is a Cure" features acts by elementary- through high school age-students, including the band Asysole, made up of Carson High students, which won the 'Battle of the Bands' at the October Community Awareness Fair at the school.

Tickets are $5 for the fundraiser and can be bought at the door or anytime from Stadler. Of the 500 tickets available, more than 350 remain for purchase.

"I'm anxious we'll have this amazing show and nobody will be there to watch it," Stadler said. "I think it will be a great experience for everybody in the show. and I think it will be a success."

Several businesses donated to the fundraiser, making the sale of $5 mugs and $10 T-shirts with the drawing of Bumby possible. Naroll has already bought nine mugs and has five more on order.

"I think it's wonderful (Sarah) is doing this as her senior project," Naroll said. "She's raising money for a good cause."

While sales of the mugs and T-shirts have been slow at school during lunchtime, one classmate of Sarah's, a junior, has jumped in to help, buying a T-shirt from her.

"I really believe in the cause (Sarah's) going for to help fight pediatric AIDS," he said, asking not to be identified. "Some people in my life have been affected by AIDS, and it is a really horrible disease. For a child to have to deal with it is inhumane."

For more information on the fundraiser, call Stadler at 884-1511 or 315-3911.

If you go

WHAT: "Love is a Cure" pediatric AIDS benefit

WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Carson High School, 1111 N. Saliman Road

TICKETS: $5 at the door. Mugs available for $5 and T-shirts for $10.

• Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.