LOTS OF LOVE- Jennifer Cummings is surrounded by grateful children at an AIDS orphanage in South Africa. The youngsters are terminally ill and the orphanage, called Lily of the Valley, provides hospice care to them. See story, below left. Have you ever done something so life-changing that you just wanted to shout it to the world?

Recently, a group of eight local women and I traveled to Kwazulu, South Africa, and I will never be the same.

We went to visit an AIDS orphanage called Lily of the Valley. "Lily" began more than 15 years ago as a hospice to give AIDS orphans a place to die. These children would be found abandoned, usually in the final stages of AIDS. At Lily, they would die in peace, surrounded by volunteers who would show them unconditional love in their last precious weeks of life.

About six years ago, the LoVE organization was formed here in Conejo Valley to support this orphanage. LoVE, or Lily of the Valley Endeavor, is a nonprofit organization that is run completely by volunteers here in the states. Every penny raised by the organization goes directly to the work in Africa.

What is unique about Lily is that it strives to provide a homelike environment for these children. Rather than dorms and cafeterias, children live in small cottages with only five other children and a house mother. The kids eat all their meals at "home" cooked by their "mom," and as they grow and live together, they build bonds just like a real family.

Through fundraising efforts in our community, LoVE was able to expand the capacity at Lily by building more cottages and, most importantly, building a state-of-the-art medical clinic.

Lily now has more than 140 children, and they are surviving. In the past 2½ years, only one child has been lost to this horrible disease.

Lily is a place of hope, but every child has an unthinkable beginning to life. James was found on the street when he was 6 years old, starving to death and extremely sick with the fullblown symptoms of HIV.

He was brought to a doctor by a social worker, who was told that James had two to three weeks to live. She drove seven hours to bring James to Lily because she knew he would be cared for and loved in his last few weeks. Well, James is now a happy, healthy 15-year-old.

Another area the LoVE organization supports is community outreach projects. The community surrounding Lily is extremely poverty-stricken, with an unemployment rate of about 95 percent. Lily offers training in sewing, agriculture, brick making and computers, and then helps the trainees create small businesses of their own.

There is also a day care center for the community's children where they are fed, loved and nurtured while their parents work or look for work. Food parcels are distributed monthly, and there is a daily soup kitchen.

Witnessing all that this organization does was humbling, especially since much of the money it takes to support these programs is raised through relentless fundraising efforts in our community.

The biggest yearly event— LoVEfest—will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Sun., June 7 at Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks. This is a fun-filled family event with food, music and a silent auction. Many of our top local restaurants set up booths, donate food—and it's all you can eat.

Along with some great local bands, this year's headliners include Brenton Brown and a Los Angeles gospel choir.

Gardens of the World, at 2001 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., is a beautiful place where you can lay out blankets on the grass, listen to some good music, eat to your heart's content and feel good about supporting a great cause.

Tickets are $35 in advance or $45 at the door, if still available.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the website www.lilyvalleyusa.org.