Footsteps to follow in

Even before she set off from the DCR Hatch Memorial Shell to participate in the 23rd annual AIDS Walk Boston on June 1, Bette Byrnes had already completed a long journey. As she has since moving away from Boston in 2002, Byrnes boarded a plane from her home in Clearwater, Florida, to participate in this year's walk.

Byrnes first did the AIDS Walk, a fundraiser for AIDS Action Committee, in 1991, after her son, John Norris, was diagnosed with AIDS. Norris succumbed to the disease in 1994 at the age of 34, but Byrnes has kept on walking. Her son would have wanted her to, she said. "I think it's very important that [HIV/AIDS] is recognized, that it is never forgotten and I don't want people to forget that all of these young people died," said Byrnes. She also walks for herself. "It's a good feeling for me to do it," she explained. "I feel very close to John when I am doing it. So it's very special."

But AIDS Walk Boston is much more than personal for Byrnes: To date, she and the walking team she organizes each year have raised more than $250,000 for AIDS Action Committee. This year, Byrnes was singled out for special recognition at the walk's opening ceremonies by AAC Executive Director Rebecca Haag, who said Byrnes embodied the inspirational qualities of "loyalty, commitment to family and community, and faithful remembrance." Byrnes and her team of 10 - which included Byrnes's niece and her family along with a few close friends, raised about $55,000 this year alone. Due to recent heart problems, Byrnes, who turns 75 on July 28, completed the 10K route in a golf cart driven that was driven by a friend.

"If this money helps in any way for these people who have HIV/AIDS - that's what this is all about," said Byrnes. "I can't do anything for [John] but I can do a little something for someone else; to make them a little more comfortable perhaps. That's really what my goal is."

This year's walk attracted more than 20,000 participants - the most in the last five years - and, combined with proceeds from the Larry Kessler 5K Run on the same day, AIDS Action said expects to raise $1.2 million for their work serving those living with HIV/AIDS.

"If people didn't get out and raise money, then AIDS Action would be - well, it wouldn't be," said Byrnes. "That's all there is to it."

Byrnes was presented with two-dozen roses at the AIDS Walk ceremony. The following day she left one of them under a tree in the Boston Public Garden that was planted in her son's memory by an environmental office where Byrnes was a volunteer at the time of Norris's death. A plaque bearing his name also sits under the tree. "He loved the Public Garden," said Byrnes. "He absolutely loved it."