To seek a vision that might suggest a path for the rest of her life, Janet Trinkaus went to the mountain.

"Up in the North Cascades, solo, by myself, in the middle of winter, for 10 days," she said. "I was in the business community and I said to myself that I've got to do something to give back -- something with children."

And she did.

In 1988, Trinkaus, now 70, founded Rise n' Shine, a Seattle organization of mostly volunteers who tend to the needs of kids and young adults who live with or alongside people infected with AIDS or its precursor, HIV, the immunodeficiency virus.

The Stroudsburg, Pa., native said she arrived in the Seattle area back in the 1970s after "a long time" in New York City's version of corporate America.

Her subsequent work led in 1999 to a regional Jefferson Award, an honor given annually to "ordinary people who do extraordinary things."

Her organization is among six chosen this year to benefit from donations offered by Seattle P-I readers through this newspaper's holiday-season Readers Care Fund.

"Without our volunteers, a lot of these kids would not get out of their homes and away from the presence of AIDS," Trinkaus said. "More often than not, these are families on public assistance living with a disease that is socially isolating, and trying to raise their kids with no money and no support.

"Our volunteers, our mentors, are able to take these kids out and do the kind of things with them that you normally do with kids -- take them to a park, to the mall, whatever. In essence, we become their extended family when, in many, many instances, there is none."

Whether Rise n' Shine's children suffer from the disease themselves or are affected by a family member who does, the chance to mingle with one another in support groups can be liberating, Trinkaus said.

There also is the chance to attend a weeklong summer camp at Lake Wenatchee.

These opportunities "give them the chance to be with other kids who are dealing with the same issues they are, so that they no longer have to feel so isolated and can say all the things out loud that they can't say in school or out in public," Trinkaus said.

Rise n' Shine aims to be more than a simple comfort cushion, however, often stepping in to take charge of ordinary dilemmas, even hopes and dreams -- college, for example.

"Teenagers have enough to struggle with without AIDS or HIV," she said. "Want to go to college and there is no parent able to fill out an application? We will."

Trinkaus and her organization won't likely be made irrelevant soon, given the social stigma still clinging to AIDS and HIV-related issues.

"We have a lot of stories to tell -- some real heartbreakers -- but frankly," she said, "most of our families don't want to go public, and we need to honor that."

When stories do get out, "the kids often get it in school. I know (one child) in particular has had to move to different places because someone in their apartment complex found out and they were threatened.

"Unfortunately, most of us don't think of those aspects. But these kids are mostly invisible. Nobody knows their stories, and so often that's the way they want to remain, invisible. But it does take a toll."

The clear irony to this, she said, is that the solution to public apathy and ignorance "is education -- getting the stories out.

"These children are disenfranchised members of society, often with mothers on public assistance. They are socially isolated with a disease that's discriminated against. I mean, who cares?

"So the kids live with a lot of anger and fear. The people they are closest to are dying -- maybe not as quickly as they used to, but they are dying -- and there is an anticipatory grief to the situation. They worry. What happens if?"

In addition to Rise n' Shine, Readers Care Fund beneficiaries this year are Seattle Education Access, which helps homeless and other marginalized youth work toward college careers; Renton Area Youth & Family Services, helping at-risk kids and their families in South King County; the Santas and their elves at the Forgotten Children's Fund; Northwest's Child, which works with severely disabled children and young adults; and New Futures, which runs after-school and family-literacy programs in three low-income apartment complexes in Burien, SeaTac and White Center.

READERS CARE FUND

For more than a quarter century, Seattle P-I readers have donated generously to the newspaper's annual Readers Care Fund, generating more than $5.6 million for local charities. Today we feature another of the six charities for 2007.