Friend of the Community | Inducted 2026
Sharyl Holtzman is an event producer, fundraiser, communications professional, and freelance writer who began working in Chicago’s AIDS service community in 1985. After reading a newspaper article about Chicago House, a newly opened residence for people with AIDS, she contacted founding Executive Director Thom Domkowski and attended a residents’ meeting at the organization’s 13-bedroom mansion on Malden Street. She soon began volunteering with Chicago House and other charities serving Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community.
At Chicago House, Holtzman met Lori Cannon during a weekend volunteer training camp. The two became lifelong friends. Holtzman also served with the Chicago chapter of the NAMES Project, which created and displayed quilts commemorating people who died of AIDS. She participated in the project’s work in Chicago and Washington, D.C., which was documented in the Academy Award-winning film *Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt*.
Holtzman supported Open Hand Chicago, the meals-on-wheels program for people with AIDS, and took part in its first deliveries on Christmas Eve in 1987 from the kitchen of Ann Sather on Belmont Avenue. She later produced Open Hand’s annual croquet tournament, which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years.
Seeking an outlet for her anger and helplessness about the AIDS crisis, Holtzman joined the Chicago chapter of ACT UP. Her arrest during the group’s 1990 protest against the American Medical Association and insurance companies in the Loop was the first of several. She also served as the volunteer backstage manager for the AIDS Walk, including its 1995 event, which drew 50,000 participants.
Holtzman continued supporting Chicago’s AIDS and LGBTQ+ communities through Open Hand as it became Groceryland, the development of the Legacy Project, and Cannon’s annual Jon-Henri Damski Award presentation. She appeared in *Short Fuse* and *The Outrage of Danny Sotomayor*, documentaries about her late friend and fellow ACT UP activist.
After Cannon’s death in 2025, Holtzman worked with Groceryland volunteers and Heartland Health to continue her friend’s work. She co-produced Cannon’s celebration of life at Sidetrack and helped coordinate the dedication of a Chicago street in her name. Although Holtzman later relocated to Los Angeles, leaders of charities in Chicago and Los Angeles continue to seek her event-production and fundraising expertise.