For those in the market, an 80-acre campground complete with river, lake, boat ramps, docks, and cabins in northern Minnesota is available after the previous owners were forced to close.
That’s because thanks to rock-bottom rates of HIV infection among babies in the state, One Heartland, one of the nation’s largest summer campgrounds for HIV-positive kids, is no longer needed.
Perinatal transmission of HIV, occurring when children contract the virus while in the womb or breastfeeding, has fallen to below 1% in HIV-positive mothers in the United States thanks to antiretroviral medications.
Globally, new HIV infections among children up to age 14 have declined by 38% since 2015.
One Heartland was founded in 1993 after Neil Willenson, a college student who wanted to be an actor, read about a 5-year-old HIV-positive child in Milwaukee facing isolation and stigma at school.
He created One Heartland as a short project, but ended up running it for the next 30 years.
“The impact was so transformative the first summer in 1993 that during the week the children were already saying ‘When can we come back?’” Willenson told Minnesota Star Tribune.
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Willenson used to rent space in camps every summer, but he soon grew tired of being rejected for health concerns. Raising money, including from former Minnesota Twins player and manager Paul Molitor, he went and bought the Willow River property to turn it into One Heartland.
“We wanted to create a safe haven where children affected by the disease, perhaps for the first time in their young lives, could speak openly about it and be in an environment of unconditional love and acceptance,” added Willenson.
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Children arrived at Willow River from all over the country, courtesy of a referral from the NIH, and donations from generous benefactors.
“That there’s no longer a need for the camp’s original purpose ‘is the greatest story that I ever could have imagined, it’s something I never could have predicted,'” Minnesota Star Tribune’s Jana Hollingsworth writes.
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