Miami University

Aids Quilt Coming to Miami

07/17/1997

OXFORD, Ohio -- Part of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt will

be at Miami University Sept. 20-21.

"Quilt of Lives," a section of 600 panels, including some of area AIDS

victims, will be on display 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, and 10 a.m.-6

p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21, at Millett Hall. A 30-minute unfolding ceremony at 10

a.m. Saturday will involve volunteers from across southwest Ohio.

The display is free and open to the public. Donations will benefit the

AIDS Task Force of Butler County.

The display will complement Miami's 1997 Summer Reading Program

selection--Dr. Abraham Verghese's My Own Country, Dr. Verghese's

convocation speech August 25 and other AIDS-related educational programs during

the academic year.

A quilt-making workshop to prepare new panels for the AIDS Memorial Quilt

will run Sept. 13-14 at Miami's Western Lodge and a candlelight vigil will be

held 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 17, at the Shriver Center plaza.

The entire AIDS Memorial Quilt consists of more than 42,000 panels, each

dedicated to one or more people who have died of AIDS. The quilt, or sections

of it, has been displayed 2,000 times during the last 10 years by the NAMES

Project Foundation to commemorate, inspire and instruct.

Quilt displays also are intended to provided a positive means of

expression for people 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.

Miami has hosted two other AIDS quilt displays, in 1989 and in

1992.

A committee of faculty, students, staff and community members is

coordinating the event. Volunteers are still needed and can contact Lisa Boes

at (513) 529-1424.

For more information about the display, contact Pat Baugher, host

committee co-chair, at (513) 529-8138.