Thursday, November 29, 2001

Picking up pieces of so many lives
AIDS Memorial Quilt panels to be displayed in Student Center ballroom
By Piper Huddleston
Staff Reporter

Kathryne McDorman, director of the honors program, lost a close friend to AIDS. She and another friend wanted to do something special to remember the loss of their friend, she said.

“We felt that the most appropriate thing to do was to make a panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt to remember him by,” McDorman said.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt, a tribute to people who have died of AIDS, will be displayed in the Student Center Ballroom 9 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 9 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday in remembrance of World Aids Day, Dec. 1.

The Fort Worth/Tarrant County division of the NAMES Project, an international organization that uses the quilt to educate and make people aware of the severity of AIDS, asked TCU to sponsor the event because the university had successfully sponsored the quilt in 1992, said Angie Taylor, co-chair of the TCU Quilt Project.

Randy Linville, co-chair of the Fort Worth/Tarrant County NAMES Project, said this is an opportunity for the TCU and Fort Worth communities to ask questions and talk about the seriousness of AIDS. He said he hopes that the quilt will help people to become more aware and compassionate.

“The adversity reflected in the panels will hopefully help people realize that AIDS is a disease that can touch everyone in some way,” Linville said.

The entire quilt has 44,000 panels, each one commemorating a person who has died from AIDS. Two hundred individual panels will be displayed at TCU, including some specifically requested with local names, Taylor, who is also the director of alcohol and drug education, said.

The quilt project started in San Francisco in 1987 by gay rights activist Cleve Jones and a group of volunteers. They wanted to express their grief over the deaths of their loved ones and to make the public aware of the devastation caused by AIDS.

Today, the quilt in its entirety is 792,000 square feet, the size of 26 football fields, Linville said. The NAMES Project Foundation displayed the entire quilt in 1996 in Washington. It is possible that 1996 might have been the last display of the entire quilt as it has now outgrown the display ground on Capitol Hill.

There will also be a display of photos taken of AIDS patients and computers set up with AIDS information Web pages bookmarked at the event, Taylor said.

Entertainment will be provided by the theater and fine arts departments, she said.

Linville said that it is important to develop an awareness of AIDS, especially among the TCU students.

“There is an apathy about the AIDS epidemic and statistics are showing a rise in HIV and AIDS of young people in the age group of college students,” Linville said.

Taylor said that she hopes TCU students will realize that it is possible to get AIDS if they are not responsible.

Piper Huddleston
k.p.huddleston@student.tcu.edu