Lightweight Champion, Heavyweight Fundraiser

Champion wrestler Melissa Andereson has been an active Star Walker — a person who commits to raising at least $1,000 — for AIDS Walk San Francisco for the past five years. She notes that the event provides an outlet for her to commemorate those she has lost.

“I've lost friends and family to this epidemic and the AIDS Walk is an inspirational event for me to celebrate their lives,” Anderson says.

Anderson has been a professional wrestler for over a decade. She has toured the world from the U.K. to Japan, appeared on numerous televised wrestling programs, and has acquired a number of championship titles along the way.

The friends and fans she has gathered throughout her wrestling career are very supportive of her mission to raise funds for AIDS Walk San Francisco, she says. “I'm very blessed to have an outstanding fan base of supporters and wonderful friends in the wrestling business to help me spread the message.”

Anderson credits social media as her main vehicle for fundraising. With more than 20,000 followers on her Twitter account, her generous donors have fast tracked her to being the number six fundraiser in the campaign. What will the final result be Sunday, as AIDS Walk gets underway? Perhaps another notch in her belt.