SVALC NEWS
AIDS Memorial Quilt Featured at San Jose World AIDS Day Events
November 19, 2008
Silicon Valley, CA –Several sections of the internationally celebrated AIDS Memorial Quilt – the 54-ton, handmade tapestry that stands as a memorial to more than 91,000 individuals lost to AIDS – will be on view Monday December 1st 2008, at the San Jose City Hall Rotunda during the civic ceremony and the First Christian Church in San Jose at the interfaith gathering. These panels will include several made to honor local residents lost to HIV/AIDS.
This free Quilt display is being presented as part of the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day – December 1, 2008 and will be hosted by several organizations that are supporting the ceremonies in San Jose. Visitors may attend the free display December 1st at 6:30 in the Rotunda at 200 E. Santa Clara Street or that same day at 8:00 PM in the First Christian Church located at 80 South Fifth Street in San Jose.
Established in 1987, The NAMES Project Foundation is the international organization that is the custodian of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. The AIDS Memorial Quilt began with a single panel created in San Francisco in 1987. Today, The Quilt is composed of more than 47,000 individual 3 x 6 foot panels, each one commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS. These panels come from every state in the nation, every corner of the globe and they have been sewn by hundreds of thousands of friends, lovers and family members into this epic memorial, the largest piece of ongoing community art in the world.
In a war against a disease that has no cure, The AIDS Memorial Quilt has evolved as our most potent tool in the effort to educate against the lethal threat of AIDS. By revealing the humanity behind the statistics, The AIDS Memorial Quilt helps teach compassion, triumphs over taboo, stigma and phobia; and inspires individuals to take direct responsibility for their own well-being and that of their family, friends and community.
Julie Rhoad, Executive Director of The NAMES Project Foundation explains, “We are thrilled to have the chance to share The AIDS Memorial Quilt with your community. These handmade blocks, created by friends and family, tell the stories of real people who were loved and lost to AIDS. We bring you their stories in the hope of inspiring compassion, healing and personal responsibility. We thank World AIDS Day San Jose for hosting this event and we invite you all out to see what wonderful healing art we have created together as a nation.”
Sections are continuously on display across the country in schools, places of worship, community centers, businesses, corporations and a variety of other institutional settings all in the hope of making the realities of HIV and AIDS real, human and immediate. To date, more than17 million people have seen The AIDS Memorial Quilt at tens of thousands of display throughout the world.
For more information on the upcoming display in San Jose, please call408-279-2711 x9. For more information on The NAMES Project and The AIDS Memorial Quilt, please visit aidsquilt.org or call the national headquarters at (404) 688-5500.
World AIDS Day Info Phone: 408-279-2711 x9
Media Contact:
Ray Mueller
408-451-9255
wadsj@aidscoalition.org



















