NAFSA AIDS Quilt Panel at Indiana University Display

On February 14, SIG members Susan Carty and Tony Ogden, who was visiting from Japan, and I attended the opening ceremony of a display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt on the Indiana University campus. We were taken by surprise to hear the name of Paul Krueger, a former SIG member, followed by the names of other NAFSAns, such as Kevin Schieffer and Robert Mashburn, and friends of NAFSAns.

It turned out that the NAFSA panel was part of the 400-panel display so the names on it formed part of the list of those remembered throughout the three-day display in Bloomington attended by 4,500 people. I had requested the panels I had made for two friends, Gregg Hay and Scott Davidson, but since their names were also on the NAFSA panel which the SIG submitted to the NAMES Project after the 1996 NAFSA conference in Phoenix, the NAFSA panel was automatically included in the Bloomington display.

The three of us were honored to be in the presence of the NAFSA panel and to bear witness to the names placed there by the many NAFSAns who attended the 1996 Phoenix display. Our colleagues, friends and loved ones were remembered together, once again.

The Quilt continues to serve as the most successful device for AIDS education on college campuses where many, unfortunately, feel some of the pressure off now that new medications are prolonging the lives of individuals with HIV. The distinctive and celebratory panels silently convey the richness of each life lost in the ongoing epidemic and the tremendous love which endures among those they left behind.

Jeff Hoffman, co-chair of the host committee, commented during the closing ceremony that the display "helped us capture and renew memories of friends, loved ones and strangers. For those who have stitched and pieced these panels together, this is not a final parting but a recognition that there’s a lot of love in these panels."