Saratoga News

Part of AIDS quilt goes on display at SHS for a week of awareness

Students, parents will sew a section for Guy Nakatani

Education programs are set

By Michelle Alaimo

Saratoga High School students have organized a week-long informational series to help raise awareness of what the World Health Organization calls the world's fastest-spreading epidemic--AIDS. Working mostly on their own, students have arranged for a number of speakers to visit the high school and will also display the NAMES Project AIDS memorial quilt Oct. 13-17.

The school will offer several activities, including the dedication of a quilt panel to Guy Nakatani, who educated local students on AIDS before dying of the disease in February 1994.

"The whole thrust of the week is about AIDS prevention and how not to be on that [AIDS quilt]," said Lynna Taylor, coordinator of Students Taking a New Direction (STAND).

SHS will display four 12-foot-by-12-foot sections of the quilt, each displaying eight 3-foot-by-6-foot panels, the exact size of a coffin. The NAMES Project Foundation said the entire AIDS quilt, which contains nearly 43,000 panels, represents 21 percent of all United States AIDS deaths. Two of the sections that will be displayed include one with a panel for Nakatani's brother, Glen, and another with a panel for Freddie "Mercury" Bulsara, lead singer of the rock group Queen. The quilt will be on public display every night during the week from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Students and parents will spend the week sewing a panel for Nakatani. Those interested in joining the group are encouraged to come in to the SHS dance studio every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or from 7 to 9 p.m., said Tina Lai, student and publicity chairwoman. The panel will then be presented to Nakatani's parents, who are flying in from their home in Hawaii for the week. The presentation will be made at the closing ceremony at 2:10 p.m., Friday, Oct. 17, in the Little Theater. The closing ceremonies will also be filmed by Time-Warner for a documentary currently in the works.

Other events for the week include the opening ceremony assembly at the high school gymnasium at 9:55 a.m. Oct. 13. Mike Smith, one of the founders of the NAMES Project, will be the keynote speaker for the event. Taylor said that more than 40 students will participate in the opening ceremony and that it's important for students to play a major role in the organizing of the event because, according to the Office of National AIDS Policy, one of every two new HIV infections happens to people age 25 or younger.

Another speaker featured during the week will be Al Nakatani, father of Guy and Glen, who will speak at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 15, in the Little Theater.

In the classrooms, some 50 student guides, who have been educated in AIDS prevention, will lead class discussions throughout the week and will work in pairs to guide groups through the quilt. Also, several teachers have signed up to have additional AIDS materials and speakers presented to their classes. In addition, the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School district is providing buses for seventh- and eighth-grade students at Redwood Middle School to view the quilt.

Taylor hopes seeing the quilt will open up dialogue for students on the sometimes intimidating subject of AIDS.

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