Purdue News
Purdue NewsA callout for campus volunteers will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17, in Room 214, Stewart Center. An organizational meeting for community volunteers will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, at the Tippecanoe County Library.
A three-day display of the quilt, an international memorial to those who have died of AIDS, will open Nov. 16 in the Ballrooms of the Purdue Memorial Union.
The display is the only one scheduled in Indiana during 1997, said Helen N. Wood, program services adviser for the union and display coordinator. "We are eager to play host to this poignant exhibit this fall," Wood said. "The panels are a moving tribute to the tens of thousands of people who have died from AIDS.
"We have the dates, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done before the panels arrive. We estimate that we will need to raise up to $15,000 to cover the costs and will need nearly 500 volunteers to make arrangements and staff the ballrooms during the display."
The display will feature 904 three-foot by six-foot panels, each commemorating the life of someone who has died from AIDS. The complete AIDS Memorial Quilt includes more than 42,000 panels from all 50 states and 40 foreign countries.
The quilt began in San Francisco when Cleve Jones, a longtime San Francisco gay rights activist, searched for a way to make people understand the overwhelming loss and frustration affecting him and so many of his friends.
In June 1987, Jones spray-painted his friend's name, Marvin Feldman, onto a piece of cloth approximately the size of a grave. Friends, acquaintances and strangers joined the effort by making panels of their own. Soon, thousands of people across the United States and around the world were adding names and expressing their emotions by creating hand-made memorials for the loved ones they had lost to AIDS.
The NAMES Project Foundation displays portions of the quilt worldwide to encourage visitors to better understand and respond to the epidemic of AIDS, to provide a positive means of expression for those grieving the death of a loved one, and to raise funds for people living with HIV and AIDS.
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. In 1990, "Common Threads," a documentary film about the quilt, won an Academy Award.
More information about The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is available at the foundation's web site: https://www.aidsquilt.org or by calling the local display organizers at (765) 494-8908.
CONTACTS: Wood, (765) 494-8907; e-mail, hnwood@pmu.purdue.edu
Jeffrey L. Sterrett, marketing coordinator, Purdue Memorial Union, (765) 494-8974, e-mail, jlsterrett@pmu.purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
