{"id":219662,"date":"2017-02-17T15:56:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T20:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=219662"},"modified":"2017-02-24T16:47:33","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T21:47:33","slug":"aids-remembrance-quilt-resurfaces-after-nearly-23-years-in-basement-219662","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/aids-remembrance-quilt-resurfaces-after-nearly-23-years-in-basement-219662\/","title":{"rendered":"AIDS Remembrance Quilt resurfaces after 23 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the spring of 1994, Linda Dudman, associate director of health promotion at the University Health Service<\/a><\/strong>, carefully folded a 12-foot square panel from the AIDS Remembrance Quilt and tucked it into a copy paper box, which she placed into a blue storage tote.<\/p>\n

The panel\u00a0bears the signatures, comments, and tributes of members of the University and the greater Rochester community, many of whom had family members and friends who died of AIDS. The messages, written in blue, green, and black marker, range from the political \u2013 calling on bureaucracies to \u201cwake up\u201d \u2013 to the deeply personal: \u201cJim, You will never be forgotten. I was more because of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, the University of Rochester\u2019s panel\u00a0had lain in the basement of Dudman\u2019s home in Rochester until she was packing up to move house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I had it,\u201d Dudman says. \u201cI knew it was a very important item to keep, but I never quite knew what to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"archival
The NAMES\u00a0Project AIDS Quilt on\u00a0display in Goergen Athletic Center in 1994. (University photo \/ Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rochester panel\u00a0had been signed during the display of the national NAMES\u00a0Project AIDS Quilt, which contains more than 48,000 individual 3-by-6-foot memorial panels, and which had come to the University in early April 1994. Back then, it had taken a year of planning, a total of 12 committees, and more than 600 volunteers to stage the national AIDS quilt, which was so large that it covered most of the 13,500 square-foot artificial turf inside the Field House at the Goergen Athletic Center.<\/p>\n

Now, with its dust shaken off, the Rochester AIDS Remembrance Quilt will once again go on display. A reception\u00a0is set for February 22<\/a><\/strong> from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Hawkins Carlson Room in Rush Rhees Library. The 12-foot square will be displayed at the library\u2019s Lam Square from February 18 through February 26.<\/p>\n

At the reception, veteran AIDS experts William Valenti, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University and senior vice president of strategic advancement at Trillium Health,\u00a0and Michael Keefer, director of the HIV Vaccine Trials Unit (also known as the Rochester Victory Alliance<\/a><\/strong>), will speak about their experience in treating HIV\/AIDS patients and their research into finding a vaccine, respectively.<\/p>\n

\n