AIDS MEMORIAL QUILT WILL BE ON DISPLAY

The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt opens Thursday on the Southeast Missouri State University campus as part of AIDS Awareness Week activities.

Fifty panels of the quilt, a memorial to people who have died of AIDS, will be displayed in Houck Field House through Sunday.

Bringing the quilt to campus will cost an estimated $10,000, said Robert J. Beodeker, director of campus activities and the University Center. Most of that money already has been raised by donations from several student organizations.

Some of the expenses which add to that estimated total include a charge from the Names Foundation to display the quilt, shipping of the quilt panels to Cape Girardeau and then back to San Francisco, expenses for a Names Project staff person who has been here once and will be here throughout the display, and promotion of the exhibit.

Beodeker said: "A large portion of that money was received through funding from student organizations. Several major student organizations have contributed."

He said the Student Activities Council, Student Government, the Association of Black Collegians, Gay and Lesbians Student Association, and the Panhellenic Council have all given money to the quilt project.

The local Southeast Missouri Regional Consortium on AIDS is also involved in bringing the quilt here. The consortium is a local organization that is working to educate people and provide support to people with AIDs.

Beodeker said sponsors are needed to help pay the cost of shipping the panels, estimated at $50 a piece.

Each three-by-six-foot panel was made by a friend or family member using memorabilia such as clothing, photographs, needlework and records.

An opening ceremony will be held at noon Thursday. The quilt panels will be unfolded and the names of the individuals memorialized by the quilt panels will be read.

A panel discussion, "Living With AIDS," will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the University Center. Several people from the community, mostly families who have had someone die of AIDS, will speak.

"When we decided to have this week, we decided to really focus on education of the university community," Beodeker said.

"The timing with Magic Johnson has worked out very well for us. As sad as it may seem, we are really hopeful that it will help in terms of pushing our message it can happen to you."

The quilt will be open for display Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Admission is free, but donations will be collected. The money collected at the site will go to the Southeast Missouri Regional Consortium on AIDS.

A closing ceremony is planned Sunday at 3 p.m. Beodeker said several area families are working on memorial quilt panels. It is possible one or more may be presented at the closing program.