Worlds AIDS Day activities set Nov. 29

A World AIDS Day Celebration, including the hosting of a display of a portion of the Nobel Prize-nominated AIDS Memorial Quilt, will be held Nov. 29 at two locations in Pocatello.

The event is sponsored by the ISU Janet C. Anderson Gender Resource Center, in conjunction with NAACP HIV Project AIDS, Genesis Project, Southeastern District Health Department, and the Regional Planning Council District 6.

As part of the international commemoration of World AIDS Day, sections of the internationally celebrated AIDS Memorial Quilt – the 54-ton, handmade tapestry that stands as a memorial to more than 90,000 individuals lost to AIDS – will be on display on from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 29 in Conference Rooms A and B at the ISU Rendezvous Complex. Then, from 7 to 8 p.m., quilts will be on display at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 309 N. Garfield Ave., in Pocatello.

The evening celebration also includes the decoration of a Memorial AIDS Tree, as well as a program and Candlelight Vigil. Confidential walk-in HIV mouth swab testing is also planned from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Rendezvous Complex at ISU. Light refreshments will be served. Events are open and free to all ISU students and employees as well as the public.

Established in 1987, The NAMES Project Foundation is the international organization that is the custodian of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. The AIDS Memorial Quilt began with a single 3 x 6 foot panel created in San Francisco in 1987. Today, The Quilt is composed of more than 47,000 individual 3 x 6 foot panels, each one commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS. These panels come from every state in the nation, every corner of the globe, and they have been sewn by hundreds of thousands of friends, lovers and family members into this epic memorial, the largest piece of ongoing community art in the world. In a war against a disease that has no cure, The AIDS Memorial Quilt has evolved as our most potent tool in the effort to educate against the lethal threat of AIDS. By revealing the humanity behind the statistics, The AIDS Memorial Quilt helps teach compassion, triumphs over taboo, stigma and phobia; and inspires individuals to take direct responsibility for their own well-being and that of their family, friends and community. These handmade blocks, created by friends and family, tell the stories of individuals who have lost their lives to AIDS. We bring you their stories in the hope of inspiring compassion, healing and personal responsibility.

For more information on the World AIDS Day celebration please contact Verena Roberts at the Anderson Center at 282-2805 or Shane Anderson at the Genesis Project at 282-5312.