Pieces of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Visits Campus
By Rachel O’Brien To commemorate World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, Stony Brook hosted its own memorial in the SAC's Ballroom A. Portions of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a product of The Names Project Foundation, was showcased on Nov. 29. The quilt was started the same year the foundation was established in 1987 and now consists of 45,000 panels - each one dedicated to the memory of an AIDS victim. The quilt represents a small portion of the 500,000 plus people in the U.S. who have fallen victim to AIDS, and is continuously being added to. The foundation encourages the families and friends of AIDS victims to create a panel for their loved one and send it in to be added to the ever-growing quilt, now 1,293,300 square-feet. The Names Project Foundation is an organization created “to preserve, care for, and use the AIDS Memorial Quilt to foster healing, heighten awareness, and inspire action in the struggle against HIV and AIDS,” according to their website. In the ballroom, where portions of the quilt were displayed, volunteers handed lists of names to students as they walked in to view the quilt. Those who desired read the names into a microphone at the front of the room, listing victims who have died from AIDS. Towards the back of the room, a signature square laid on the floor; a piece of cloth displayed for well-wishers to write prayers, poems and statements of hope, memorializing those who had been a victim of AIDS. Although not on display at Stony Brook, the quilt also includes the names of famous musicians, performers, actors, athletes and other well-known individuals, including Arthur Ashe, Perry Ellis, Rock Hudson, Liberace, Robert Reed and Ricky Wilson. To learn more about the quilt and The Names Project Foundation, visit http://aidsquilt.org/. |
