Spotlight

November 29 , 2000

World AIDS Day Inspires Community Quilting Bee at Brooklyn College

Alice Newcomb-Doyle (718) 951-5882

Brooklyn, N.Y.-- Scores of faculty, staff and students from nearly every organization and club at Brooklyn College pulled out their sewing needles many for the first time ñ to create panels for an AIDS quilt that will be displayed on campus as part of World AIDS Day 2000. The quilt will be on view for the college community and the public at the Brooklyn College Student Center in the Gold Room on Friday, Dec. 1, and Monday, Dec. 4, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Also on display in the lobby will be a portion of the original AIDS Memorial Quilt contributed by the New York City Chapter of the NAMES Project. The AIDS Memorial Quilt was begun in 1987 and contains more than 45,000 individual panels.

Made up of nearly two dozen panels and measuring approximately 14 feet by 14 feet, the Brooklyn College AIDS quilt is one of thousands to be displayed across the country for World AIDS Day awareness. The panels share personal and meaningful messages from each contributing campus organization. The group Latin Women created a patch in white and red trim in memory of a student's sister who died of AIDS in 1995. The Broeklundian Yearbook's yellow panel urges the viewer to "open your eyes and you will see, people with AIDS look like you and me."

The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) pasted many small red felt ribbons onto a large ribbon set against a pale green background that carries the message "coming together to fight AIDS." Other Brooklyn College "panelists" include the Personal Counseling and Career Services Center, Alpha Sigma, Asian Student Union, the Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Hillel, the Division of Student Life, and others.

"We wanted to help build awareness of this critical worldwide issue by encouraging our students to create an AIDS quilt on this important day," said Milga Morales, dean for student life. "The results of their efforts are beautiful and touching expressions of support and hope for individuals with AIDS and their families."

TheWorld AIDS Day events -- part of Human Rights Week on campus -- are sponsored by the Health Programs office, a division of Student Life. Human Rights Week is sponsored by the Office of Student Life.

      Brooklyn College, founded in 1930, is one of the eleven senior colleges of the City University of New York. Located on a twenty-six acre tree-lined campus in Flatbush, it enrolls 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students who are representative of the diverse population of Brooklyn and New York City. The college is nationally known for its core curriculum, which has been hailed as one of the "bright spots" in American higher education. Visit the college Web site at: www.brooklyn.cuny.edu.


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