A.L.P.H.A. founder: ‘We can’t afford NOT to do this’
Community activist and leader Duane Quintana
At first meeting, Duane Quintana does not strike you as your typical activist. His soft-spoken voice and mild-mannered demeanor immediately puts one at ease and draws you into whatever topic is on his mind at the moment. And perhaps that very approachability is one of the keys to his success.
At 32, the Boise man is the executive director of A.L.P.H.A., Allies Linked for the Prevention of HIV and AIDS, the largest HIV testing and counseling organization in the state of Idaho, and a previous Pride Foundation grant recipient. Quintana founded A.L.P.H.A. in 2003.
He is on the board of The Community Center in Boise, and helped organize the Boise Coffee Party, a local chapter of the national group that arose as a grassroots response to the Tea Party. The Coffee Party’s mission is to provide an outlet for citizens interested in crafting public policy through cooperation in government.
Quintana is also a volunteer for Pride Foundation, having participated in the Idaho scholarship applicant screening process. He has climbed aboard once again this year, serving on one of two Idaho scholarship interview committees who will decide how to disperse funds for two Pride Foundation Idaho scholarships in 2011.
“I think of it as a privilege to be involved as a volunteer for Pride Foundation and what it wants to accomplish in Idaho,” Quintana said. “It’s rad! It feels good to give back to the community. The work Pride Foundation does is inspiring.”
That dedication and need to aid the LGBTQ community evolved from Quintana’s own personal struggles.
Growing up in Wendell, a small Idaho town about 100 miles southeast of Boise, he’d originally intended to become an architect and even moved to Arizona to pursue schooling in the field. Instead Quintana ended up acting, modeling – even becoming a preacher, tracing back to his days of teaching Sunday School in his church in Wendell. Then, at age 20, he was diagnosed as HIV positive, came out to his family, moved back to Idaho and started treatment. He vividly recalls the lack of support and services in Idaho for those with HIV.
“I got so frustrated,” Quintana recalled. “There also wasn’t enough education about HIV. I wanted to be involved in changing that, but I didn’t know how.”
With the help and support of his family, he put together a documentary called “I’m Just Me, Just Like You,” which chronicled his and his family’s reaction to Quintana’s HIV diagnosis. He started speaking to high school students about his condition, and worked for a time for the now-defunct Idaho AIDS Foundation. His personal journey eventually led to the creation of A.L.P.H.A., and he’s never looked back.
“It’s an awesome thing to be a part of,” Quintana said, “and it’s humbling sometimes, too. I had a mom who hugged me once, telling me her son would have died without our help. This work we do is beyond just me or A.L.P.H.A.”
A.L.P.H.A. started as just an office in downtown Boise where people could come get condoms and find out where to get testing. Quintana describes those early days of the organization as “just trying to find ways to fill the gap. We eventually figured out that more testing needed to happen.”
According to Quintana, A.L.P.H.A. tested over 940 people for HIV in 2009 and more than 1,500 in 2010. The organization works with anywhere from 20 to 200 volunteers each month, has about 45 various testing sites in the state and operates permanent offices in Boise and Twin Falls. Quintana hopes eventually to open another A.L.P.H.A. facility in Nampa, but admits finding funding to maintain the organization’s current level of services is an ongoing challenge.
“Sometimes you feel you can’t afford it,” he said of A.L.P.H.A. and its work, “but we can’t afford not to do this.”
Steve Martin is Pride Foundation’s Regional Development Organizer in Idaho. Email Steve.
Loading ...