Each year, North American Bear Weekend donates all of the proceeds (after expenses) to local charities within the LGBT community. Since the event was founded in 2011, we are very proud to announce we have donated over $275,000 to these charities. We are excited to be partnering with the following charities in 2025:
AIDS VOLUNTEERS, INC (AVOL)
AVOL’s mission is to collaborate with communities to End HIV in Kentucky. This bold mission for AVOL aligns our work with many “calls to action” recently emerging in communities throughout the Nation. We encourage people, organizations, formal and informal groups, elected officials and others in the community to do whatever it takes to get Kentucky’s numbers to specific levels in five key areas by 2024.
- Increasing to 90%, the number of people living with HIV who know their status.
- Decreasing by 50% the number of new HIV infections
- Increasing to 90%, the number of people living with HIV connected to, reconnected to, and maintained in medical care
- Increasing to 90%, the number of people living with HIV who achieve and maintain viral suppression
- Work to eliminate health disparities and HIV stigma
Never before since we began our work in 1987, have the tools available to us been so effective. We now know that people living with extremely low levels of HIV will not pass the virus along to others. This “viral suppression” involves many factors, most important of which is that persons living with HIV remain engaged in medical care and medication adherence. Our housing, support and empowerment services have proven to reinforce adherence leading to viral suppression. PrEP, an effective once daily pill taken to prevent the transmission of HIV, is becoming more and more accessible.
Through these elements and traditional tried and true approaches like increasing access to testing, advocating condom use, education, reducing barriers, and raising awareness, together we can End HIV in Kentucky.
CARACOLE, INC (CINCINNATI)
Caracole is Greater Cincinnati tristate region’s nonprofit AIDS Service Organization, devoted to positively changing lives in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Founded in 1987, we started as a small, non-medical hospice for people dying of AIDS. Today, while treatment and prevention are available, the HIV epidemic has not gone away. It remains a significant humanitarian, public health and economic issue.
Today, Caracole works to end HIV/AIDS by providing:
Prevention: preventing the spread of HIV through community outreach, education, HIV/HCV testing, PrEP assistance, safer sex, safer injection and overdose prevention supplies, syringe services and treatment referrals
Housing: offering a variety of permanent housing support to prevent homelessness and to stabilize individuals and families living with HIV
Care: helping individuals living with HIV access the health care they need through medical case management and pharmacy services.
Who we serve
Currently, we serve more than 1,500 clients living with HIV/AIDS and provide more than 1,700 free or anonymous HIV tests annually.
Our service area includes:
Ohio counties: Adams, Brown, Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton, Highland and Warren
Kentucky counties: Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Mason and Pendleton
Indiana counties: Dearborn, Franklin, Ohio and Union Counties in Southwest Indiana
SWEET EVENING BREEZE LGBTQ+ YOUTH SHELTER (LOUISVILLE)
Sweet Evening Breeze was founded to address the over-representation of LGBTQ+ young adults experiencing homelessness in Louisville which mirrors national data and the lack of affirming services to address the additional risk they face while on the streets compared to their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts.
James Herdon was born in Scott County, KY in 1892. At a young age, They were abandoned in Lexington at the Good Samaritan Hospital where they grew up and eventually became head orderly.
Locally known as Sweet Evening Breeze or “Sweets”, they were recognized for their gender non-conforming style, often wearing makeup, scarves, jewelry and at times, dressing in full drag. As the movement for LGBTQ+ equality began in Lexington, Sweets was instrumental in helping to overturn Lexington’s cross-dressing ordinance. Despite being a gender non-conforming Black person in the Jim Crow era, Sweet Evening Breeze was well liked in the community and was known for random acts of kindness such as baking cakes or giving shoes to poor families.
It was their hospitality and compassion for others, that helped inspire our purpose and vision to offer houseless LGBTQ+ young adults with affirming services.
CAMP BEACON (KENTUCKY STATE-WIDE)
Camp Beacon is the first summer camp for LGBTQ+ youth in Kentucky. The dream of making this a reality are two years in the making and 2023 is the year it happens for real!
We are devoted to providing the best camp experience ever for LGBTQ+ youth in Kentucky. Thank you for being a part of helping us fulfill that mission!