HAPPENIN' PERSON - HEIDI SCHULTZ

For the past eight months, injection drug users in Eugene and Springfield
have had access to free needles through HIV Alliance's anonymous needle
exchange program. "We go to sites in the community," says Heidi Schultz, who
originated the program. "Our goal is to reduce drug-related harm." As a UO
student from Mendocino, Calif., Schultz took an EMT course at LCC. She
started as a volunteer crisis counselor at White Bird Medical Clinic, then
took on half-time work as a medic with White Bird's CAHOOTS van. "I
discovered I like working with underserved populations," she says. A
teetotaler personally - "I don't even drink caffeine!" - Schultz has become
a crusader for addicts' health-care rights. "Research on needle exchange
consistently shows that it's beneficial," she says. "It's ludicrous that the
government bans the use of federal funds.

Everyone deserves access to health care." Schultz hopes to extend needle
exchange to outlying areas of the county. "Heidi is amazing - just a
kick-ass woman," says Trent Seager of HIV Alliance. "People are falling
through the cracks - she's there at ground zero to catch them."- Paul Neevel