It’s all about caring during the Thanksgiving holiday week.

Austin’s Zonta International chapter showed they care in a tangible way: They donated personal care items to the Mower County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

“Usually we do this during the holiday season, but we decided to collect items during November, because we knew there was such a need,” said Cheryl Retterath, president.

The Red Cross chapter has issued a public plea to individuals and organizations to donate personal care items for the needy to help fill a growing need at this time.

Bill Orcutt, retired teacher and Red Cross chapter volunteer, attended the Tuesday, Nov. 25, Zonta International meeting at Sterling State Bank to accept the items and to discuss the upcoming World AIDS Day awareness effort Dec. 1.

Orcutt shared grim news with the Zontians.

“It’s growing,” Orcutt told the Zontians, “I don’t know if we can call it an epidemic yet, but it’s growing among the 17 to 40 years of age age group every day.”

High-risk behaviors among young college-age students are producing more HIV/AIDS cases than ever before.

And, Orcutt said, because the virus lies dormant in the body for as long as 90 days, HIV/AIDS victims who contract it won’t immediately know they are infected.

“In the meantime,” Orcutt said, “if they engage in more high-risk behaviors, they will have that to deal with also, when the virus is detected.”

Orcutt has visited Austin Public and Austin Catholic schools as well as schools at Lyle, LeRoy, Grand Meadow and Blooming Prairie to share facts, not fiction, about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

“I speak to health and life skills classes in those schools to share the facts with them,” Orcutt said.

It’s all part of the Red Cross’ challenge to “Change A Life” by making healthy choices.

To bring home his point about the dangers of infection, Orcutt showed the Zontians a plastic bag containing “some,” he said, “but not all” the medications an HIV/AIDS infected victim must take.

“They will have to take as many as eight medications multiple times each day,” he said. “The cost will blow you out of the water.”

Pressed by Zontians for an estimate of the cost to purchase HIV/AIDs medications, Orcutt suggested as much as $1,000 per week.

The price-tag for treating victims is borne by society; not the least of which is public assistance paying for the treatment costs.

Of course, Orcutt said the largest price-tag is the human toll HIV/AIDS takes. “Once you’ve got it, it’s not going to go away,” he said. “STDs can be controlled; HIV/AIDS can’t.”

According to the Red Cross volunteers, prevention is the only key: avoiding high-risk behaviors.

Zonta president Retterath thanked Orcutt for “making a great presentation that opened our eyes.”

For more information about the upcoming World AIDS Day awareness effort and helping the Mower County Chapter of the American Red Cross call 437-4589 or visit their local headquarters at 305 Fourth Ave. N.W. or go online to mowerarc@charter.net.