CABLE POSITIVE TO RECEIVE AWARD FROM ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER WELLNESS CENTER

NEW YORK, NY - May 15, 2006

Cable Positive, the cable and telecommunications industry’s AIDS action organization, will accept the first National Ally Award from the Asian & Pacific Islander (A&PI) Wellness Center on Friday, May 19, in San Francisco, honoring cable’s HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in Asian & Pacific Islander communities across the country.  Other recipients of community awards include PlanetOut Inc. and HIV/AIDS activist Steve Lew. The event, held at AT&T Park, will be hosted by community icon Tita Aida and feature the best of ballpark fare, liquor tastings, a silent auction and an appearance by actor Jason Scott Lee who is hosting the evening’s festivities to coincide with the commemoration of National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

“Cable Positive has demonstrated unprecedented leadership nationally in promoting A&PI visibility and fighting HIV-related stigma,” says John Manzon-Santos, A&PI Wellness Center Executive Director. “We are especially grateful for your partnership over the last two years in which you have embraced and promoted our National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on May 19th, and lent your expertise, energy and time to the development and dissemination of our public service announcements to air in millions of households across the country.”

“We are both humbled and honored to receive this award from an organization as prestigious and effective as the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center,” says Steve Villano, Cable Positive’s President & CEO.  “The alarming growth of HIV infections in the Asian & Pacific Islander community is a national and international emergency, and those of us with the ability to communicate messages which aim at reducing stigmas have a duty to do so.”

The award presentations are part of A&PI’s Mix 06’ fundraising event to launch A&PI Wellness Center’s 20th year of service.  Mix ‘06 follows an Awareness Art Show being curated by the AP&I Wellness center that’s free and open to the public from 5:00-6:30pm.  The showcase includes powerful visual and performance art addressing HIV-related stigma in A&PI communities. For more information on the event please visit http://www.apiwellness.org/events_mix_06.html.

Cable Positive will also be participating in a seminar hosted by the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV and AIDS at the NYU Medical Center in New York City.

ABOUT CABLE POSITIVE

Cable Positive is a national non-profit organization that was founded in February 1992 by three concerned cable executives with the mission of organizing cable’s resources in the fight against AIDS. Cable Positive will mobilize the talents, resources, access and influence of the cable and telecommunications industry to raise HIV/AIDS awareness; support HIV/AIDS education, prevention and care; and strive to end stigma by creating a more compassionate climate for people whose lives have been affected by HIV or AIDS. Cable Positive has grown to include supporters from every major cable network, multiple system operator, cable system, hardware manufacturer, trade association, media publication, and affiliated industry vendors and suppliers. Since 1992, Cable Positive has raised more than $14.9 million in the fight against AIDS. For more information about Cable Positive, call 212-459-1502 or log on to www.cablepositive.org

About Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center

The Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center’s mission is to educate, support, empower and advocate for Asian and Pacific Islander communities — particularly A&PIs living with, or at-risk for, HIV/AIDS. Founded in 1987 as a grassroots response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in communities of color, A&PI Wellness Center is the oldest nonprofit organization in North America focusing on A&PI communities around sexual health and HIV/AIDS services. To meet the needs of our clients who are mostly immigrants or refugees, A&PI Wellness Center staff also speak many Asian languages.

About Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

The national Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, officially recognized by the federal government and a part of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, grew out of the Banyan Tree Project.  The Banyan Tree Project, funded through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention is a national effort spearheaded by A&PI Wellness Center with regional partners from Honolulu to Boston.  The project fights HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in A&PI communities.