MCAVHN is a 501c3 non-profit organization (Tax ID No. 68-015927)
Providing services and comfort to persons and families affected by HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C,
and the co-occurring disorders of mental illness and substance abuse
History of MCAVHN
(The following history is extracted from the Fall 2015 MCAVHN Newletter.)
CHAPTER 1: THE FOUNDING OF MCAVHN
(With Recollections of Rosalie Anchordoguy, co-founder of MCAVHN)
A Volunteer Network to Give Aid and Comfort Before There Was a Cure
You may have heard Dr. Trotter speak at the 2015 Event of the Heart or perhaps you read our
spring newsletter recounting the founding and early days of MCAVN (the Mendocino County AIDS
Volunteer Network, as we were originally called). Rosalie Anchordoguy, a key player since the
beginning, has been sharing her recollections of that historic time in hopes of keeping the memory
alive.
The first known AIDS case in Mendocino County came in on the Greyhound from Sacramento and
showed up one day at Plowshares. AIDS had by then become well known among the gay
populations of the larger urban areas and the state of California had just issued grant funding to
begin statistical tracking and case reporting statewide.
Rosalie was working at Public Health at the time. They were in the beginning stages of setting up a
testing program when she received a call from Martin Bradley of Plowshares asking what services
were available for the newly arrived man with AIDS. She had to reply that there really weren't any
services yet.
It was becoming apparent that the times were a-changing. Dr. Marvin Trotter, Dr. Mary Newkirk and
P.A. Lynn Meadows were working at the Mendocino Community Hospital (where the county
administrative center is now). They were starting to see others coming in with AIDS, people who
were already very, very sick. Along with a concerned group which included Deborah Mead, Jim
Kramer, Steven Day, Michael Huddleston, Rob Jones, Terry Brown and Alan Swanson they got
together to brainstorm what could be done, and that was how MCAVN was born in the spring of
1987.
Craig McMillan was the Mendocino County Health Officer at the time and he felt strongly that AIDS
was a public health issue. Many agencies were trying to distance themselves from the AIDS
epidemic. President Reagan had not even said the word 'AIDS' yet. Dr. McMillan was able to allocate
the start-up money for MCAVN from the public health budget. "It was historic. We got money from
the county before Sonoma County did and Craig McMillan needs to be applauded and commended.
He was very important at the beginning of this grass roots venture."
Rosalie continues, "At first we didn’t really have a place. Marvin and Mary had an office on South
Dora They gave us an answering machine and let us plug it in there. We spent a lot of time
developing a volunteer program. We did a volunteer training at Esther Faber and Ana Mahoneys
house. We trained people to come in and do home care. We modeled it after Face to Face in
Sonoma County. We knew that people needed a lot of support to be able to do this work and then
support to be able to process their experiences so that they wouIdn't immediately feel over-
whelmed and run out the back door and never come back.”
We opened an office on South State Street in Ukiah, operated a residential patient shelter for three
years and then about 20 years ago moved into our current location on Clara Street. In the early days
an AIDS/HIV diagnosis was an almost certain death sentence and we would see 8-10 MCAVN clients
lose their lives to the disease each year. People were very, very sick and volunteers were doing
things at home that prior to that had been done in ICU. Rosalie recalls, "We were teaching people
how to run IV pumps at home or at the shelter. AIDS has really done a lot to revolutionize home
health care and to teach mere mortals how to handle some of these situations.”
Continued in Chapter 2…
Lest We Forget
The AIDS Quilt in Washington D.C.
Every square in memory of a loved
one lost to AIDS.