LOS ANGELES—Team Wicked, led by Wicked Girl and sex educator Jessica Drake, raised $21,755 for AIDS charities while urging voters to say no to the anti-porn Prop. 60 ballot measure at AIDS Walk Los Angeles on October 23. The annual fund-raising event was held, for the first time, at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles.
The star-studded team easily surpassed last year’s fundraising total of $15,416, placing 10th among the more than 1,000 teams participating and surpassing the totals earned by such other returning teams as Paramount Pictures, ABC 7 and the Fox Entertainment Group. Team Wicked was designated a Gold Team after finishing among the top fundraising teams at the 32nd annual event, which raised more than $1.7 million for AIDS organizations in Los Angeles.
Drake, who was among the top individual fund-raisers, was designated a Star Walker for raising $9,025 and finishing 9th among all individual fundraisers. Team member and adult performer Ryan Driller was the squad’s next top fundraiser with $2,500, followed by Jessica Johnson who raised $1,500, Venus Lux with $1,100, Vanessa Veracruz with $1,025 and Katrina Jade and Tyler Nixon, who each earned $1,000. All seven were selected as Star Walkers at the event for their individual fundraising effort.
Those interested may still donate by visiting Team Wicked's AIDS Walk L.A. web page.
“I am very grateful and very proud of all our team members, supporters and friends who helped make this event our most successful walk!” Drake said. “We were able to raise a great deal of money for AIDS charities and were also able to raise awareness and spread our message of saying No to Prop. 60 and the deceptive campaign they are running to drive away the adult industry out of California!"
The proposed legislation is the controversial “Condoms in Pornographic Films Initiative,” which will be on the November 8 ballot in California. If passed, it could have devastating ramifications by allowing any California resident to sue adult performers and producers—and potentially collect damages—if condoms are not visible in every frame of a scene.
“We are extremely proud of Jessica and Team Wicked for surpassing last year’s fundraising total for this great event,” said Wicked Pictures president and owner Steve Orenstein. “This year the team had 38 members and earned a total of 185 individual donations. We’re especially pleased to see such a great response from industry members who joined Team Wicked in its two-fold goal of raising needed funds for AIDS charities and for bringing greater awareness about Prop. 60 and its proponents’ blatant effort to mislead voters about the real purpose of this proposition.”
Besides her ongoing work with Team Wicked and other charitable activities, Drake has been traveling the world, making speaking appearances and media contributions with her message of sexual wellness and the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship through a mutually satisfying love life. She is a regular columnist for Style Caster, and recently appeared on BuzzFeed’s original series Modern Sex. Additional contributions from Drake this year appear in outlets such as Uproxx, AskMen, CNBC, Vice, BuzzFeed, Bustle, Maxim, Refinery 29, Prime Mind, GQ, Your Tango, and many others.
Drake’s activism for sex education is rooted in the success of her award-winning Jessica Drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex, which has earned Drake much acclaim for its message of sexual wellness and for its many awards and honors. The series’ volume on fellatio earned AVN’s 2012 Best Educational Release trophy and AVN’s 2014 Best Educational Release award.
Established in 1985, AIDS Walk Los Angeles was the world’s first walk dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS. Over the last 31 years, the event has raised more than $79 million for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and advocacy programs. For more, please visit APLA.org or LA.AIDSwalk.net.
For more information on Drake, visit GuideToWickedSex.com or Twitter.com/thejessicadrake.
Above, photo by Chris King. For more galleries of the AIDS Walk Los Angeles, go to AVN.com/galleries.
