An HIV/AIDS Awareness Walk will be held Saturday, Nov. 5 at 11 a.m. in Asheville.

Walkers will gather at The Grove House Complex at 11 Grove Street, and then move uptown to rally at Pack Square.

County Commissioner David Gantt, local writer and poet Dennis Tillman and longtime HIV/AIDS activist Michael Harney are slated to speak.

The mission of the free awareness walk is to bring attention to the ongoing issue of HIV/AIDS infection in Western North Carolina and to inform the public about the current funding crisis of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which provides life-saving medications to low-income North Carolinians living with HIV/AIDS in this state.