The Key West Business Guild on Dec. 1 celebrated the end of a successful 2021, despite the persistent pandemic and a calendar of events that only recently started filling back up.
Larry Blackburn, guild board member, Keys Weekly photographer and president of the Friends of the Key West AIDS Memorial, reminded the lunchtime audience that Dec. 1 was World AIDS Day.
Key West for decades has marked the day of remembrance with a candlelit march from City Hall to the Ed Knight Pier at the end of White Street while volunteers read out more than 1,200 names of people lost to AIDS that appear on the city’s AIDS memorial, which was the first of its kind in the nation.
The guild also swore in its 2022 board members and handed out four awards for service to the organization and the community in general.
The 2022 board includes: Chuck Licis-Masson, president; Jacqueline Luhta, vice president; Misha McRae, secretary; Patti McLauchlin, treasurer; and board members Alan Beaubien, Jay Berelowitz, Paul Murphy, Larry Blackburn and Jenn Stefanacci Portier.
