Walk to End HIV 2026 - Lace Up with Lesbifriends 🚶🏾♀️
For the 40th year, Whitman-Walker Health hosts the annual Walk & 5K to End HIV, a movement of over 1,000 walkers and runners coming together at Anacostia Park to honor those we have lost, cheer on our HIV survivors, and imagine a future with a cure for HIV.
This year, Lesbifriends Travel is showing up in the community for a cause that hits home. HIV remains an epidemic in D.C., and Whitman-Walker Health has been on the ground for over 50 years providing lifesaving prevention, treatment, and care, especially for our LGBTQ+ community. Being present at this walk is more than a morning out. It is a way to stand with people we love, honor the legacy of those we have lost, and pour into the organization that has poured into us for decades.
🌟 Walking with Team I Did It My Way
We are walking with Team I Did It My Way, a beautiful team organized by Lee Levingston Perine. Lee is turning 48 this year and has set a goal of gathering 48 walkers in honor of his father, David Andrew Perine, Sr., and his friend, SaVanna Wanzer. Two lives, deeply loved and deeply missed, celebrated through community and action. This kind of intention is exactly the energy we want to move with, and we are grateful to be part of it.
After the walk, there will be a casual community meetup, an easy, joyful gathering to close the morning together.
👉🏽 Join Team I Did It My Way and Walk with Us
🤍 Cannot Walk? Support the Team
If you cannot make it to the walk in person, you can still stand with us. Every donation goes directly to Whitman-Walker Health's HIV programs and services, funding lifesaving prevention outreach, treatment, and care for thousands of people in the D.C. area regardless of their ability to pay.
👉🏽Donate to Team I Did It My Way
Every dollar makes a difference. Every voice matters.
📅 Event Day Timeline
⏰ 7:30 AM - Registration + T-shirt Pickup Opens
🚧 8:30 AM - Final Road Closures
🧘🏾 8:30 AM - Warm-Up Begins
🏃🏾♀️ 8:45 AM - 5K Run Kicks Off
🚶🏾♀️ 8:50 AM - Walk Kicks Off
🛣️ 9:30 AM - Roads Reopen
🎤 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM - Stage Program & Entertainment
💛 About Whitman-Walker Health
For over 50 years, Whitman-Walker has been a leader locally and nationally as a first responder and care-provider for those living with HIV, a leader in LGBTQ+ care and advocacy, a research center working to discover breakthroughs in HIV treatment and prevention science, and a trusted partner in times of crisis, from the AIDS epidemic to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whitman-Walker envisions a society where all people are seen for who they are and treated with dignity and respect. Through care, advocacy, research, and education, they work to ensure all persons can live healthily, love openly, and feel true inclusion in all aspects of their lives.
Here is some of the work being done:
Over 2,500 participants in 40+ active research studies
Whitman-Walker's Community Health and Medical teams provide 1/3 of all HIV-positive care and 1/3 of prevention care in D.C., including their nationally regarded PrEP clinic
Services and support for one of the country's largest transgender and gender-expansive cohorts
Over 1,500 free legal consults each year to clients seeking asylum because of who they are
Over 3,000 free HIV tests at the SMART Clinic each year
At Whitman-Walker, they see patients, but they see people first.
🤝🏾 Why This Matters
In a city where two percent of adults are known to have HIV, and where young people ages 13 to 24 represent nearly 20% of new HIV diagnoses, the Walk to End HIV plays a vital role in ending this epidemic. Whitman-Walker's work is not just health care. It is community care. It is the safety net for so many of us. And it is exactly the kind of work Lesbifriends Travel is proud to stand behind.
Ready to Move with Us?
Whether you are lacing up or donating from home, thank you for showing up.
By attending this event, you agree to being photographed. However, if communicated, we will try our best not to capture you in photos and post you publicly. That request must be communicated ahead of time/at the beginning of the event to photographer and host.