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AIDS Athens has arranged to display
a portion of the AIDS memorial quilt at the Athens Classic Center from February
18 to 20. The NAMES Foundation in San Francisco keeps and maintains the entire
quilt, which began in 1987 and now weighs 54 tons and covers 23 acres. The
small section that will be displayed in Athens will cover the floor in the
Grand Hall, one of the Classic Center’s largest rooms.
Olivia Long, executive director of
AIDS Athens, states that the Athens display will include approximately 650
panels and explains that the people honored on those panels will include many
from Northeast Georgia and Athens. She encourages local family or friends of
anyone memorialized by a quilt panel to request that the panel be part of the
show. Requests for the inclusion of a particular person’s panel should be
submitted via a form on the AIDS Athens website at http://www.aidsathens.org,
or by calling Long at (706) 549–3730. Community members who have made a panel
for a loved one can bring it to the closing ceremony. AIDS Athens also will be
adding a panel to the quilt that contains the names of more than 200 people
from and near Athens who have died because of AIDS in the last 25 years.
The free quilt display will be open
to the public beginning with an opening ceremony at 6:00 p.m. on February 18,
with the display continuing that evening until 9:00 p.m. Display hours for
February 19 are 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. On February 20, the display will be open
from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with a closing ceremony starting at 5:30 p.m. The
Classic Center is located on Thomas Street in downtown Athens.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit:
http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
