(Springfield, MO) -- There's much to be said for life experience.  As the saying goes, with age comes wisdom.  And for one Ozarks man, his wisdom can bring age.

"Don't be ashamed or embarrassed about it," says Don, a 40-something, neatly dressed man to a group of Kickapoo high school students. 

Don will talk before a crowd, but won't show his face on television.  He says the stigma is just too strong in his small Missouri town.  It's the stigma of homosexuality and AIDS.

"Do you know anyone with AIDS?" he asks the students. 

Only a couple raise their hands.  His answer causes the group to fall silent.

"You do now, you know me," he continues.  "I've been positive for 26 years.  And you've all met me now, so now you all know someone who's positive."

'Positive' is a good way to describe Don since his life is full of them.  Osteomyelitis, a bone-dissolving infection brought on by AIDS has not, at least not yet, left him an amputee.

"Usually when they go in to the bone and just chip it out," he says.  "But mine was so bad, they scooped it out with a spoon.  It was just soup."

And there's another positive, he takes fewer meds than he used to.  Only about 21 a day instead of 42 pills and two injections that he took for years.  And the sorting takes the longest since he swallows ten to eleven pills at once. 

"You can tell how long I've been doing this," he chuckles.

He tells his story, so it won't become someone else's story.  And he works full time at the AIDS Project of the Ozarks, administering HIV tests and helping clients cope with the challenges of HIV and AIDS.

"Back when I was diagnosed, the doctors would tell you to go home and prepare to die," Don says.  "My diagnosis was scary, but not much of a surprise.  I knew my lifestyle."

Don and his teaching partner Theresa Parrish, an AIDS patient herself, go into public schools and teach young people to avoid the disease. 

Don says he was on death's doorstep for times.  Theresa underwent a liver transplant as a result of the HIV infection she received through a blood transfusion.  Both have good days and bad days and agree the side effects of their medication is as unpleasant as the infection itself.

Don says the fastest growing age group of HIV infection is young people age 13 to 24.  He also tells the story of one young girl who argued that her birth control pills would protect her from AIDS. 

"I could tell how adamant she was that she was sexually active," Don says.  "She was twelve years old.  It's happening.  Parents may not realize it, but it's happening."

He also tells of at least one 17-year old who came back with a positive diagnosis. 

"When we teach we can see the ones who get it.  We're getting through to them," he adds.

For more information, contact the AIDS Project of the Ozarks.