AIDS awareness, quilt to blanket campus
Heidelberg University has observed and celebrated World AIDS Day in years past, but the 2009 event organizers expect the day will be bigger and better than ever before.
Sponsored by Berg Allies and the Alpha Phi Tau Men’s Fraternity, what used to be an evening of food and entertainment has evolved into a week-long series of events, all leading up to the 5th Annual HIV/AIDS Charity Banquet. Together, these events make up the first HIV/AIDS Awareness Week at Heidelberg.
Co-coordinated by seniors Amy Dunham and Matt Eusey, the week will be highlighted by the unveiling of a section of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Founded in 1987, the AIDS Memorial Quilt continues to grow and reach out with messages of hope, remembrance and awareness.
Each block or section of the Quilt measures approximately 12 square feet, and virtually every one of the more than 40,000 panels that make up the quilt memorializes the life of a person lost to the AIDS pandemic. Heidelberg will showcase 10 of the 672 sections of the Quilt, which has not been seen on campus since 1998.
More than 18 million people have visited the Quilt, which is based in Atlanta. In its entirety, the project measures 1.3 million square feet, weighs more than 54 tons, and displays more than 91,000 names of people represented by nearly 40 countries. It would take a person 33 days to see the entire Quilt, spending only one minute viewing each panel.
Associate Dean of Students and advisor to the Week’s projects, Reetha Perananamgam said that in requesting sections of the Quilt to display at Heidelberg, she, Dunham and Eusey made sure that panels from Ohio would be present. “However, this is a worldwide epidemic, and so it was important for us to have other countries represented, as well,” Perananamgam said.
“To have the Quilt was a really huge goal, and we didn’t really believe we could get it here,” Dunham said. “It’s all really happening.”
The Quilt will be on display in Herbster Chapel from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 14 and 15.
Dunham and Eusey emphasized their aspirations to make this year’s AIDS Charity Banquet the best it’s ever been, and they seem to be off to a strong start. The banquet, which will be held in Wickham Great Hall on Nov. 16 and will seat and serve 2
00 guests has already sold out – a full week before the RSVP deadline.
A speaker from the Columbus AIDS Taskforce will give the evening’s keynote address. Other entertainment will be provided by the Heidelberg campus community in varying mediums, including song, dance and spoken word.
“I just wanted to see better attendance and more response to this [the Banquet] than in years past, and we’ve met that goal. I want people to come to our events, get involved, get educated and take part in what’s going on around them,” Eusey said. He and Dunham agree that the response from the campus community has been extraordinary.
All monies raised before and during the week of events will be donated to One Heartland, a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and families impacted by HIV/AIDS. Founded in 1993, Camp Heartland is the largest camping and care program for children who are living with or are affected by HIV/AIDS. Because most of its participating children live in poverty, in 2008, Camp Heartland chose to expand its mission and vision and form an umbrella organization – One Heartland, which helped to welcome more children into the program.
“I just want to see [the week] have an impact,” Dunham said. “I want students to be talking about it and think about it after the fact. Heidelberg may not be directly affected, but we all need to be aware … It can allow people to come together for a common cause, and seeing the Quilt is just huge.”
“As an institution of higher learning, it is our responsibility to educate our communities,” Perananamgam said. “These two students (Dunham and Eusey) have so much commitment to the project and to the cause. It’s going to be a stellar event.”
The week of events will include a worship service in Herbster Chapel on Nov. 12 and a candlelight vigil on Nov. 13, as well as an ongoing awareness campaign in the Campus Center lobby, the Campus Center front lawn and Pfleiderer Hall, which will encourage students to sign a pledge to empower, lead and deliver the message of HIV/AIDS awareness, or to simply honor the people affected by the virus.
Posted on Oct. 30, 2009