AIDS WALK INVENTOR TAKES EVENT IN STRIDE.

Byline: Dennis Love Daily News Staff Writer

AIDS Walk pioneer Craig Miller's story might make a good self-help book. Maybe with a title like, ``Everything I Really Need To Know I Learned As A Kid Riding My Bike In The San Fernando Valley Campaigning For Tom Bradley.''

Combing the conservative Valley for Los Angeles' first African-American mayor and other local Democratic candidates at 13, Miller was provided with an all-too-early tutelage-by-fire in the art of political persuasion - lessons that in the past decade have paid staggering dividends in the battle against AIDS.

That work continues today, as Miller's special events firm will oversee today's 12th annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles, an event that is expected to draw an estimated 25,000 participants and raise more than $3 million for AIDS Project Los Angeles.

The AIDS Walks, a concept engineered by Miller in Los Angeles and which has since spread across the country, and other events like the AIDS Dance-A-Thons recently surpassed the $100 million mark in money raised by Miller, Zeichik and Associates Inc. for AIDS services, education and advocacy.

``I certainly think growing up in the Valley, where moderate conservatism seems to flourish, provided a far more challenging environment for someone like me,'' Miller, 37, said last week amid the bustle and clatter of AIDS Walk preparations in his lived-in-looking suite of offices high above Hollywood Boulevard.

``There would have been nothing unique or interesting about working for progressive candidates or causes on the west side of Los Angeles. But working for Tom Bradley in the San Fernando Valley was another matter entirely . . . and what I found was that people in the Valley are, in the end, eminently reasonable.''

It was a principle Miller deftly applied when formulating his idea back in 1984 for the first AIDS Walk. As a chief aide for U.S. Rep. Anthony Beilenson, D-Woodland Hills, Miller already had identified AIDS as a medical crisis that, ``because of bias and prejudice, would not be adequately addressed by the federal government.''

So Miller set to casting about for ``an event that would be large and broadly based, that would reach out to all kinds of people regardless of financial status or physical condition. And, most importantly, something that would be cost-efficient,'' he said.

Oddly enough, the notion for an AIDS walk came while watching a football playoff game on TV. ``I don't know if it was the crowd that triggered it, or what,'' Miller recalled. But the concept nonetheless presented itself: Recruit volunteers to collect pledges and then walk in a mass demonstration that would attract attention and, by extension, even more volunteers and pledges.

No one would be asked to donate money beyond their means; no one would be asked to walk any farther than they were able; no one would be asked to get arrested, chain themselves to the White House gate or otherwise put themselves at risk. It was an event that was, well, eminently reasonable.

The first AIDS Walk was held in Los Angeles in 1985 with about 4,500 volunteers raising $673,000. Miller was astonished: ``It seemed like a simply amazing result,'' he said. ``I've never felt as proud of the Los Angeles community, and particularly the gay and lesbian community, as I did that day . . . the vast majority of those who walked were gays and lesbians, and it took some courage.''

Los Angeles has held an AIDS Walk every year since, organized by Miller's firm with proceeds going to AIDS Project LA, one of the country's pre-eminent AIDS organizations. Miller's firm also coordinates walks in San Francisco, New York, Atlanta and Denver, and has given free instructional seminars that have generated similar events in places like Orange County, Kansas City, Mo., and Washington, D.C.

Jimmy Loyce, executive director of AIDS Project LA, was an AIDS activist in San Francisco when the AIDS Walk concept was first presented in that city. ``We all sort of said, `What's this?' But it was phenomenally successful, and Craig Miller's contribution to raising critical funds for AIDS services must be strongly acknowledged.''

Richard Bondroff, AIDS Project LA's chief financial officer, said Miller's chief asset is running a lean operation that keeps costs low. Miller, Zeichik is paid a flat fee for its work (about $65,000 for today's L.A. event) and Bondroff said Miller has been able to keep the total cost of AIDS Walk Los Angeles at about 22 percent of the money raised - extraordinarily low in a business where the expense of putting on charity events can run as high as 80 percent of money raised.

Miller said, ``Our philosophy is that a dollar saved is at least as good as a dollar raised, maybe even better.''

That may be Miller's Valley roots talking again. He long ago absconded to Santa Monica, but his Valley credentials are beyond reproach (he even delivered the Green Sheet in the old Orchid Park area as a boy). His upbringing in Canoga Park and Sherman Oaks ``is very definitely something that defines who I am, and I have more friends and family in the Valley than you can imagine.''

Miller came from a ``socially conscious'' family in which his father, Jerome, was an anti-poverty official in the Sam Yorty and Bradley mayoral administrations and his mother, Marsha, was a teacher at Canoga Park High School active in school board politics.

Miller said his father was Bradley's first appointee to his staff after his election in 1969. ``I think that was for several reasons,'' Miller said, smiling. ``He was respected for his work, but he also was white, from the San Fernando Valley, and, I suppose, the first evidence that the city wasn't going to be turned over to the Black Panthers.''

After attending Pierce College, Miller went on to work for state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal and Beilenson before launching Miller, Zeichik.

He now spends nearly all his time organizing AIDS-related fund-raising events. ``In the early going, the challenge was to get people to get beyond their biases about the disease. Now, the biggest challenge is public apathy.''

That apathy is based, at least in part, on the occasional good news coming from AIDS research. ``There are some wonderful and positive things happening,'' Miller said.

``But do we spend a lot of time trying to convince people that there is a AIDS crisis? Sure we do . . . There is very little risk of my being a Chicken Little. The sky already has fallen. And we are motivated because we know there are so many people out there who need our help.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Event creator Craig Miller expects today's 12th annual walk to draw 25,000 participants.

Scott Weersing/Special to the Daily News