Saratoga News

St. Andrew's Church displays AIDS quilt

Two panels will hang inside church through Dec. 14

A display of The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, an international memorial to those who have died of the disease, will open on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 13601 Saratoga Ave.

Two 12-foot by 12-foot sections of the quilt, each containing eight panels memorializing individuals who have died of AIDS, will hang inside the church through Dec. 14.

The display is sponsored by the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition in conjunction with The Names Project's Interfaith Quilt Program.

The display will be open to the public on three Sundays (Dec. 1, 8 and 15) from 11:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until noon. For more information, call 867-3493.

The quilt began in June 1987, when a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would overlook. Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS and to help people understand the devastating impact of the disease.

Today, nine years later, the quilt is a powerful visual reminder of the AIDS epidemic. More than 40,000 individual 3-foot by 6-foot memorial panels, each one commemorating the life of someone who has died, have been sewn together by friends and family members.

This article appeared in the Saratoga News, November 27, 1996.
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