"Go walk," the assembled thousands in Kapi'olani Park were told yesterday, "fight AIDS, banish it from these lovely, beautiful Islands."

Walk they did, some 4,000 strong, on a three-mile trek for the 18th annual Honolulu AIDS Walk, raising $156,000 in the battle against the disease.

Paul Groesbeck, whose stirring speech sent them on their way, is executive director of the Life Foundation, which the walk benefits. Some 150 volunteers assisted. The money raised will go for prevention efforts and services for people living with HIV and AIDS. Last year the group tested 2,000 people for HIV, anonymously and without charge, Groesbeck said.

Even though the AIDS walk fell short of its $250,000 goal, more walkers showed up than last year's 3,000 participants and volunteers.

"Beauty queens, drag queens, children and pets — this is as diverse as it gets," said Kiko Haya- shida, owner of the Sure Shot Cafe on Wilder Avenue in Makiki, who was at the VIP tent.

Hayashida is on the board of Gregory House Programs, which helps provide housing for people with HIV and AIDS in Hawai'i. She said she was there because "I really wish there were more education and awareness. People are still dying. There's no cure. It would be nice if there were one in my lifetime."

Two of the beauty queens were Caroline Chapman (Miss Kapolei), an About Face instructor at Wai'anae High School; and Joleen Iwaniec (Miss Ka'ena) a University of Hawai'i electrical engineering student from Waimanalo. They will both be contestants in the Miss Hawai'i scholarship pageant at the Hawai'i Convention Center in June. They were on hand, complete with long eyelashes, sashes and tiaras, to encourage the walkers and hand out bottles of water.

Back behind the bandstand, a group from the UH John A. Burns School of Medicine also wore tiaras and red sashes, which read: "We're all beautiful."

"Everybody deserves to feel like a beauty queen at least once," said medical school student Kiandra Kang, adjusting her crown.

Her fellow student, David Yamane, held a bouquet of condoms. "We are the med school so we have to incorporate something nerdy," he said.

Kang said she was encouraged by the public attitude toward HIV/AIDS. "It's become a lot less taboo," she said, "less stigma, treated like another infection."

The public relations community was represented by Hawai'i Pacific University students Martin Valdez and Elaine Da Silva, among others, who are members of the school's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America. "It's a good cause," Da Silva said, "a good way to be involved."

Before the walkers step- ped out, Michelle Schiffl, a group exercise and aerobics instructor from Kailua, fired up the crowd with a wildly enthusiastic rendition of "Let's Get it Started," from one of the CDs she uses in her aerobics routine.

Schiffl, a stay-at-home mom with a 22-month-old girl and another baby on the way, has volunteered at the AIDS walk for five years.

"I love giving back to the community, honestly," she said. "Everyone should be healthy. If you have HIV you can still have a healthy lifestyle."

One of the early finishers was Maria White, a credit union employee, who lives with Hayashida, her partner, in Salt Lake.

White talks the talk, as far as the fight against AIDS is concerned, but she does not walk the Walk. She ran it, as her red face and huffing and puffing attested.

"I can't stand being behind," she said. "I'm a leader, not a follower."

Anyone wishing to contribute or to find out more about Life Foundation can call 521-AIDS or visit www.lifefoundation.org.