The immune system's destructive saga is no longer the focus of casual conversations as it once was.

However distanced from public awareness, Friends Together still marches on in this state with a Web page and a traveling ambassador, Cathy Robinson Pickett, an HIV/AIDS patient herself who has devoted more than a decade to educating people about its dangers and consequences.

Four times a year, children, families and lonely individuals that share HIV/AIDS as a common thread in their lives gather at Camp Wingmann on Trout Lake where they share their lives, their knowledge and experience, and support each other in the ongoing battle to win life from the tangled web of viral infection depressed immune systems can no longer fight.

Sue Nardy, a registered nurse from Avon Park, recalled the latest "empowerment" camp at Wingmann, Halloween weekend.

"Walking about Camp Wingmann can be a quieting, peaceful experience near serene Trout Lake," Nardy said. "But when it's time for a Friends Together retreat weekend, the camp becomes a hub of activity and laughter when from all over the state these children, families, and individuals descent upon this beautiful spot."

It's a amazing opportunity, she said, for families and volunteers who are caring and want to make a difference in people's lives gather in support of each other to learn more about how to better live with HIV/AIDS.

"Empowerment is the key to each of these camp retreats."

The weekend includes classes, of course, because information about HIV/AIDS treatment and medicine is vital to prolonging life and improving the quality of life for those who are trying to win this heartbreaking war. Other classes talk about good nutrition, and the legal issues attending the disease -- guardianship and living wills, HIV transmission and dealing with guilt, fear and grief.

It hardly sounds like a great way to spend a weekend, but it is a dramatic escape from an ignorant world that doesn't understand the disease, shuns those who have it, and even takes aim at those who do in frightening, even deadly ways.

Camp is camp, too, and Wingmann offered a long list of fun things to do -- kayaking, swimming, play time and games, exercising in the gymnasium, rope climbing, zipline building, and arts and crafts. It would have been difficult to think up things that weren't on the list.

"Campfires down by the lake in the evening are special times, too," Nardy recalled of her several camp experiences.

About this latest camp, she said, "The past Halloween retreat with the costume party was a rewarding experience for all."

More than 100 children from families in Highlands, Hardee and Polk counties put on costumes.

It may seem incredible that more than 20 years into the HIV/AIDS outbreak, this many children with the disease live in the tri-county area, but they do, Nardy said, and the camp always gives them a chance to "celebrate life."

People magazine featured Robinson in its May 19, 2003 issue.