Mr. Condom covers campus

Adam F. Jarrold Arizona Daily Wildcat Emily Silver, media arts junior, chuckles at Carly the Condom as political science and communications junior Aaron Rudin looks for the next person to give out free condoms to yesterday on the UA Mall. Campus Health set up the tent on the Mall as part of National Condom Week, which continues until Saturday.

They were trying to protect them from sexually transmitted diseases.

Health Center representatives braved yesterday's soggy weather and offered their prophylactics as part of National Condom Week's 20th anniversary - from Feb. 14 to 21. The educational campaign was started by University of California-Berkeley students in 1978.

The University of Arizona has been celebrating the event for more than 10 years.

"The goal of National Condom Week is to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases - including HIV and AIDS - and unintended pregnancy by increasing the proportion of sexually active people who use condoms correctly and consistently," said Lee Ann Hamilton, Campus Health educator.

Campus Health hopes to raise UA students' awareness of the benefits of safer sex and abstinence and to encourage condom use among sexually active students.

Hamilton, sheltered along with student groups under a single blue and red tent on the UA Mall, said several hundred people had stopped by to see what was going on and grab free condoms despite the gray and cloudy conditions.

"It was cold, but we actually had a really good turnout and response," Hamilton said, adding that about 2,000 condoms were passed out. The Campus Health Center buys the condoms for the annual event.

"National Condom Week is kind of an upbeat, positive event that seeks to empower students if they are choosing to be sexual active," she said.

Students from Frisky Business, a group that works with the Campus Health Center, ASUA's Student Health Advisory Committee and Education by Example, a University Activities Board organization, offered safe-sex pamphlets and trivia quizzes.

But the star of show was the king of contraceptives - Mr. Condom.

"It was the dancing condom that did it," said Torran Anderson, a home-study teacher who brought his ninth- and 10th-grade students to campus to educate them about safe-sex issues.

"It's hard not to laugh when you see a big dancing condom," Hamilton said.

Talking about sex can be difficult and because of that, she said, "It never hurts to have sense of humor.

"The dancing condom helps people feel positive about using condoms," Hamilton said.

Condoms, she said, can be a fun part of people's lives, and using them shows that people care.

Frank Kuperman, medical technology freshman, said commemorating the event and having Mr. Condom at the UA is a good aspect of the national week.

"I think it's pretty cool actually. It's entertaining. The humor helps too," he said.

National Condom Week is celebrated across the country with both serious and tongue-in-cheek events.

UC Berkeley held a scientific symposium that featured speeches on proper condom usage, and Iowa held the First National Poetry Condom Contest.

Humor has been used since 1978 to promote the campaign, according to the Condom Week Website at http://www.condomweek.org.

"While you're undressing Venus, dress up that penis," was one of hundreds of condom slogans found on the Internet.

"The students' level of knowledge seems to be very high," Hamilton said.

"Many students are fairly sophisticated about what they know about condoms and safer sex. Our hope is that their knowledge translates into safer-sex behavior. It's one thing to know and another to actually do."