AIDS VICTIM'S MOTHER HONORED : WOMAN WHOSE YOUNG SON DIED HELPS FAMILIES DEAL WITH DISEASE.

Byline: Stacy Finz Daily News Staff Writer

While people across Southern California observed the ninth annual World AIDS Day, an internationally recognized day of mourning for those who have died of the disease, Shevawn Avila celebrated.

Seven years ago the Sherman Oaks woman lost her 8-year-old son to AIDS. Today she is helping 1,022 families in Los Angeles deal with losing their own children to the deadly disease.

On Sunday, Avila celebrated the memory of her son and the work of Tuesday's Child, the organization that helped her deal with her own loss.

She got involved with Tuesday's Child when it was a newly formed organization that bought a bicycle at Christmas for her son, Troy, when he was grappling with his illness.

Now being director of family services for Tuesday's Child is her life's work.

``AIDS needs to be acknowledged every day until this disease goes away. But one day a year is a start,'' she said about World AIDS Day.

In 1996, 3.1 million people around the world were infected with human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS, bringing the total number of people with HIV or AIDS to 22.6 million, according to officials at UNAIDS. As of September, Los Angeles County had recorded 34,122 cases of AIDS.

At the House of Blues, children and their parents suffering with AIDS gathered for Tuesday's Child's seventh annual Grace Awards.

Avila and five others were honored for making a difference in people's lives.

Families were treated to brunch and to music by a gospel choir.

``I want to help the families get through this time and have good memories in light of what they are going through,'' Avila said.

Elsewhere in Southern California on Sunday, 13 skydivers formed a giant red AIDS ribbon during a free-fall over the Perris Valley Airport. The event was sponsored by the AIDS Project Los Angeles.

In East Los Angeles the Wall-Las Memorias Project held the third annual Noche de Las Memorias or Night of Memories service at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Lincoln Heights. The service was the forerunner to a candlelight procession along Main Street to Lincoln Park, the proposed site of a monument with 2,000 names of people who have died of AIDS.

``Our organization wants to provide for those afflicted with AIDS the experience of participating in a traditional spiritual community prayer,'' said Richard Zaldivar, founder and executive director of the Latino nonprofit AIDS organization formed to build the monument at the park. ``We also want to create a place where members of our community can come together, pray and come to terms with the problems we face.''

At the Hollywood Church of Religious Science, a multidenominational interfaith memorial service was held for victims of the virus.

The AIDS Project Los Angeles is featuring two art exhibitions in its gallery on North Vine Street. Works of Mexican artists documenting the AIDS epidemic in Mexico City will remain on display through Dec. 6, while work by local artists affected by the virus will be shown through Dec. 31.

The J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art observed a ``Day Without Art,'' an event that coincided with World AIDS Day to dramatize the disease's impact on the international arts community.

At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a bell was tolled for those dying of AIDS and there were readings by members of the Writers Workshop of the AIDS Project.

The Getty draped a celebrated work in its antiquities collection: a Greek statue, more than 2,300 years old, of a victorious athlete.

``We want everyone to feel the loss of this work of art and to take a moment to consider the ways in which AIDS affects their own lives,'' said John Walsh, director of the museum. ``It will be an opportunity to think about loss, but it will also be a chance to learn and to understand more about the disease and what can be done to respond to the crisis that it presents.''

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PHOTO Devallon Knox, left, gives a hug and a kiss to Shevawn Avila, who won an award Sunday for service to families coping with HIV and AIDS.

Evan Yee/Daily News