Winner of AHF’s 2012 “Test-to-Win” Fiat 500 is Los Angeleno Elizabeth Conn

  Winner of AHF’s 2012 “Test-to-Win” Fiat 500 is Los Angeleno Elizabeth Conn

  AIDS Healthcare Foundation culminated months of testing events and online
contest submissions on New Year’s Day when the winner of the 2012 Test-to-Win
contest was announced by two of the nonprofit’s international representatives
 who had ridden on the 2^nd annual AHF Tournament of Roses float earlier that
                                     day

   The winner of the HIV testing campaign which in September introduced the
 INSTI™ Rapid HIV Test with 1-minute results – who beat out over 2,000 other
  entrants to take home a 2012 Fiat 500 – was 22-year-old Los Angeles native
                                Elizabeth Conn

Business Wire

LOS ANGELES -- January 3, 2013

About 100 people gathered on New Year’s Day at the Pasadena ‘Out of the
Closet’ thrift store operated by leading global nonprofit AIDS Healthcare
Foundation (AHF) to hear the announcement of who would be the lucky winner of
a new 2012 Fiat 500 convertible from the organization’s four-month-long
“Test-to-Win” contest. Over 2,000 people entered the contest by getting a free
HIV test at over a dozen affiliated testing events since September or joining
the contest online, and that list was narrowed down to just 100 finalists in
December.

Of those finalists, 44 showed up at the Pasadena winner announcement gala on
the first day of the new year – a requirement in eligibility to win the car –
waiting and shopping in the thrift store with their friends until the official
drawing at 6 p.m., which was conducted by Marcos Ledesma, 36, and Francis
Xavier De Melo, 48, two international AHF representatives who flew in from
Mexico and India, respectively, to ride on the organization’s Tournament of
Roses float, ‘The Global Face of AIDS,’ which highlighted the breadth of AHF’s
global work in the fight against HIV/AIDS and which won the Queen’s Trophy for
best use of roses. This is AHF’s second consecutive win of the prestigious
award.

As the contestants anxiously looked on, Francis blindly pulled a name from the
basket Marcos had shaken up, and he announced that the winner was 22-year-old
Pacific Palisades resident Elizabeth Conn, who gleefully came forward to claim
the key to her brand new car, which came from Santa Monica Fiat.

The “Test-to-Win” contest – a media and awareness campaign to encourage more
widespread HIV testing – began on September 22 with a testing event where AHF
introduced bioLytical Laboratories’ INSTI™ Rapid HIV Test, which provides
99.9% accurate results in just one minute. Though this innovatively easy and
quick test has been used in countries throughout Africa and elsewhere for over
four years, the September event was its premiere introduction to American
testers following its July approval by the Food and Drug Administration, and
AHF continues to exclusively offer the test at their myriad testing facilities
nationwide and through the mobile testing vans they dispatch in major cities
across the country.

At the time of the September launch of the INSTI™ Rapid HIV Test, Whitney
Engeran-Cordova, Senior Director of AHF’s Public Health Division, said, “The
increased availability of the INSTI™ 60-second rapid test in the U.S. is a
game-changer and will allow for large-scale testing events and new ways for
point-of-care testing in Emergency Rooms. Most importantly, it will lead to
new techniques of reaching people.”

“AHF has used more than one million INSTI™ tests over the past four years in
our programs and partnerships in Uganda, India, Mexico and Estonia,” said
Terri Ford, Chief of Global Policy and Advocacy. “We find it to be the best
test out there today, and very popular with testing partners around the world.
We are very glad that we can now also bring this testing technology home to
people here in the U.S.”

Conn entered the contest by being one of the twenty entrants who got tested at
a testing event held at West Hollywood’s LA Sports Club clothing store on
Halloween. No one tested positive for HIV at that event, and of the 894 total
people who were tested at the 13 events held throughout the Southland between
September and December, only five of those people tested positive for the
virus and were linked to treatment. Another 1,400 people entered the contest
online or by signing up with AHF representatives via iPad at the various
testing events, which were held in conjunction with events like the West
Hollywood Auto Show, the AIDS Project LA AIDS Walk, Go-Go Dancer Appreciation
Day, and KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball.

About AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare
provider in the USA. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to
more than 183,000 individuals in 28 countries worldwide in the US, Africa,
Latin America/Caribbean Eastern Europe and Asia. Additional information is
available at www.aidshealth.org. For more information on testing and testing
locations, visit www.freehivtest.net.

Contact:

AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Ged Kenslea, +1-323-308-1833
mobile: 323-791-5526
ged.kenslea@aidshealth.org
or
Kyveli Diener, +1-323-308-1821, ext. 1805
mobile: 310-779-4796
kyveli.diener@aidshealth.org