JULY 10, 1999: Elizabeth Taylor, 67, and good friend, Barry - TopicsExpress

JULY 10, 1999: Elizabeth Taylor, 67, and good friend, Barry Manilow, 56, at The Project Angel Food Program Award Ceremony is Los Angeles. The Project Angel Food Program, founded in 1989 by Marianne Williamson, was formed as an outreach program of the Los Angeles Center for Living and aimed at assisting people with life-threatening illnesses…which, naturally, included those affected by HIV/AIDS. Though a multi-service nonprofit, one of its most vital programs presently is maintaining a lunch preparation service for drop-in clients, but as fewer and fewer clients become homebound, it eventually branched out into a home delivery service, as well. In 1999, Elizabeth Taylor agreed to accept the Angel Award (presented to her by Manilow). She had been working as an AIDS advocate for over a dozen years and this point. Awards and accolades continued to come her way worldwide. Not even the seriousness of brain tumor surgery in 1997 slowed down her pace. She was relentless in traveling the planet and personally investigated where the proceeds from her Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation could be best served. She made all of the philanthropic decisions for her foundation and refused to hire employees, relying solely on volunteers, as she wanted 100% of the foundation’s profits to be used for the neediest being able to utilize services. No other single human being in the history of the fight against AIDS has ever done so much work or raised so much money and she will be remembered forever for this.