A portion of the 54-ton AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display at Pitt-Johnstown as part of the university's effort to increase awareness of the AIDS epidemic.
The quilt was created in 1987 by the NAMES Project Foundation, and sections of it are on display continuously around the country.
Six of the quilt's 47,000 panels will be displayed in the Cambria Room of UPJ's Student Union building. An opening ceremony will be held at 4:30 p.m. Monday, and the quilt will remain on view through Thursday.
HIV/AIDS-related activities will be held throughout the week on campus.
Sherri Rae, UPJ's assistant director of student activities and intercultural affairs, said, "The AIDS epidemic has been slowly drifting from the consciousness of the American public, as it is viewed as being under control and primarily a crisis in other countries.
"In reality, new HIV and AIDS diagnoses are being made in the U.S., with an alarming number of college-aged and African-American women."
The quilt contains 91,000 names in celebration of the lives of people who lost their battle with HIV/AIDS. The goal is to encourage compassion and inspire personal involvement in combating the problem.
"The quilt is a visual that puts faces to names and lives to statistics," Rae said. "We want to remind students to be responsible and intentional in the choices they make."
The entire quilt is 1,293,300 square feet and weighs more than 54 tons. Each memorial panel measures 3 feet by 6 feet.
To view the entire quilt, spending only one minute per panel, would take 33 days.
Wenche N. Bonini, Memorial Medical Center's coordinator of the Community Care Management Rural AIDS Program, will present "HIV/AIDS 101" on Tuesday in the Cambria Room at UPJ.
The group's mission is to reach out to the HIV/AIDS population and their families to offer support and education.
An open mic memorial/poetry reading will be held Wednesday in the Cambria Room for those who want to express how their lives have been touched by the disease.
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