On Wednesday, about a dozen Western students participated in a celebration of people living with AIDS.
The AIDS quilt was started in 1988 by the Names Project Foundation. The project originally started with 1,920 panels and has grown to almost 40,000 panels, covering 24 acres. Each panel was created in loving memory of a family member or friend who died with AIDS.
This year, the Sexual Awareness Center organized the first quilt recognizing people living with the disease.
"There are no quilts anywhere honoring people living with AIDS," said Kristi Crawford, co-coordinator of the Sexual Awareness Center. "So we're putting together a living with AIDS quilt."
The quilt will have 12 panels honoring Western students living with AIDS.
After Crawford finishes sewing the panels together this weekend, the quilt will be displayed in the Wilson Library's main entrance display case until the end of December.
The quilt comes two weeks before the 22nd Annual Celebration of Worlds AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The Sexual Awareness Center, the Drug Information Center and the Lesbian/Gay/ Bisexual/Transgender Alliance are collaborating on a week full of activities and events intended "to promote awareness about AIDS," Crawford said.
"AIDS is still here," said Sexual Awareness co-coordinator Kim Anderson. She said she hopes students realize they are at risk.
"There are people living with AIDS on campus and in this community, and it can affect you," Anderson said.
50 percent of new HIV cases worldwide are people under the age of 22, said Tim Costello, spokesperson for Evergreen Aids Foundation.
"People think AIDS is no longer an issue because of the new cocktail regimens available for HIV and AIDS patients," said Lindsay Forrey, assistant coordinator of the Drug Information Center.
Crawford said the week of Nov. 27 through Dec. 1, center staff members will attempt to broaden student's perspectives about AIDS.
The members' goal, she said, is to go beyond the routine information people hear about how one gets infected or how to protect oneself, and give people a deeper sense of what it means to live with AIDS.
