The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation will support advocacy event AIDSWatch 2019 in Washington, D.C. starting Monday
Elizabeth Taylor defined classic Hollywood with Oscar-nominated performances in Butterfield 8, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and more. But the actress found her true passion in advocating for HIV/AIDS.
“She spoke of it as being something that finally gave her a sense of purpose,” Taylor’s granddaughter Naomi deLuce Wilding tells PEOPLE. “She spoke of being relatively ambivalent about her fame and her acting career. She loved it, but when she found activism, it really made sense of her passion.”
On Monday, The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation will support AIDSWatch 2019, marking the organization’s fifth year as a partner with AIDS United for the two-day advocacy event in Washington, D.C.
“It’s one of the most beneficial things that we as a family for ETAF have done,” says deLuce Wilding, who will attend the AIDSWalk with her siblings Laela Wilding and Quinn Tivey, an officer of the foundation. “It keeps us involved. It makes us also feel like we’re part of a community, which is really important to us.”
RELATED VIDEO: Prince Harry Follows in Princess Diana’s Footsteps While Attending Aids Conference in Amsterdam
Taylor’s grandchildren and The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation Ambassadors will lobby Congress to hold the presidential administration accountable to its goal to end the epidemic by 2030. The late star went to Washington, D.C. to lobby for the cause in 1986, and would still be fighting today, according to her granddaughter.
“She always said her plan was not to die until there was a cure for AIDS,” deLuce Wilding, 43, says.
Taylor died in 2011 following hospitalization for congestive heart failure, but her legacy lives on through the work her family and foundation do to advocate for HIV/AIDS. While a celebrity taking a stand proved to be a rarity in the ‘80s, Taylor’s trip to Capitol Hill paved the way for stars to align with causes today.
“She was one of the first celebrities to get up and not only do things like start a foundation, but to be so outspoken,” deLuce Wilding says. “She had a role in creating that expectation that we have now for celebrities to a certain extent. I think she’d be proud of herself.”