When 13-year-old Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS after a blood transfusion in 1984, people thought they could contract the disease just by touching any AIDS afflicted person, such as White. The teen became a national spokesperson for AIDS victims, appearing on "Nightline" and befriending superstars Elton John, Michael Jackson and Greg Louganis.
Years later, people know better. But the stigma of having AIDS still remains, which led the Wellness Advocates, in collaboration with South Asian Students Association and ADVOCATE, Loyola's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning organization, to bring the AIDS Quilt to Loyola and Chicago.
The AIDS Quilt is a collection of panels made by family and friends of deceased AIDS victims. The quilt was started in 1987 and has since been growing in size and traveling the country. Currently, more than 46,000 panels have been sewn into 5,712 sections of 12 square feet quilts. Each panel is three feet by six feet.
Senior Amber Lievens suggested the idea to bring the quilt to Loyola at a planning session with the Wellness Advocates earlier this year.
"[This is] one of the most successful events that the Wellness Advocates [have done] in the past that had a real impact on students and was meaningful," Lievens said.
Senior Theresa Stock, also a Wellness Advocate, organized the presentation of the quilt in Crown Center.
"We hope it will raise awareness to show that there is hope and people are working toward finding a cure for this horrible disease," Stock said. "We thought it would be something that promotes diversity and acceptance. So many people turned out for the AIDS Walk and Run earlier this year, we thought that this is something the student body is interested in."
The Wellness Advocates, with help from ADVOCATE, requested funding from the Unity and Diversity Fund, and once accepted, applied to The Names Project Foundation to host a section of the quilt at Loyola. The Wellness Advocates also used some of their organization's budget to fund the event. Getting the quilt to Loyola cost about $900.
ADVOCATE and SASA gave "in-kind" support, helping the group without financial assitance by aiding the Wellness Advocates in promoting the event through fliers and posters around campus.
The quilt includes the panel made by Ryan White's friends and family, and an accompanying Power Point presentation uses a quote from White about his struggle with AIDS.
"A lot of people know Pedro [Zamora] from The Real World," Stock said. "His panel is on there, right next to Ryan White's. It is neat we have [those panels] because Ryan was an early leader in the fight to remove the stigma. People thought you could contract the disease when you could just touch somebody. He [and Pedro were] a big part of removing that stigma about AIDS and what it really means."
To enhance the meaning of the quilt, the Wellness Advocates chose the film, "Pandemic: Facing AIDS," to play on a continuous cycle while the quilt is open for viewing. A Power Point presentation with statistics, quotes and various information about HIV and AIDS also plays.
Alissa Eischens, Wellness Advocates adviser, said she agreed with the mission and message of bringing the quilt to Loyola.
"The AIDS Quilt is a positive thing," Eischens said. "Each panel is the story of an individual person who died from AIDS, and each person who views the quilt has a chance to put faces and names to the epidemic, especially if they have not known someone living with HIV/AIDS."
The film accompanying the quilt tells the stories of five individuals from across the globe, including victims in India, Brazil, Russia and South Africa. These tales are woven together, like the quilt, to show what it islike to live in a specific area with the disease.
In addition to helping students learn about diversity and acceptance when dealing with AIDS, the quilt and supplemental information provide an outlet for the Wellness Advocates to encourage prevention.
To further promote the meaning behind the AIDS Quilt and overall HIV/AIDS prevention, the Wellness Advocates are collaborating with ADVOCATE and SASA, along with other student organizations, to hold a Global Health Conference. The conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Crown Center on Saturday, April 29, and 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday in Damen Hall.
The conference will discuss how to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
"In the U.S., people of college age are one of the highest-risk groups for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, so prevention is essential," Eischens said. "AIDS affects millions of people around the world, and we want to highlight these people's and countries' stories in the hope of inspiring people to take action against the pandemic."
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