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Release date: Nov. 16, 2006 Emory Hosts Nation's Largest Display of AIDS Quilt
Contact: Beverly Cox Clark, 404-712-8780, beverly.clark@emory.edu Contact: Michael Rabkin, director, Emory Hillel, 404-712-9063, michael@emoryhillel.org Emory University will host the largest display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in the country on World AIDS Day, Friday, Dec.1. Sponsored by Emory Hillel, the "Quilt on the Quad" display will take place on the Emory quadrangle and includes more than 650 panels, each memorializing the life of a person lost to AIDS. The Emory community will come together for an opening ceremony at 11:20 a.m., followed by a public reading of all of the AIDS victims on the quilt panels. The day will include the decoration and signing of new quilt panels, as well as the dedication of two personal panels, in addition to an information fair of local AIDS organizations. The keynote speaker will be Jeffrey Lennox, M.D., a professor of medicine and an infectious diseases expert at Emory's School of Medicine and medical director of the Ponce Center. The Ponce Center, in midtown Atlanta, houses the outpatient infectious disease clinics of Grady Health System, and is one of the largest and most comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment facilities in the country. Emory physicians, fellows and residents conduct clinical care at the center, including a variety of clinical trials aimed at advancing patient care. Lennox also is co-director for clinical and translational research at the Emory Center for AIDS Research. Go to Emory's programs in HIV/AIDS for more information. The NAMES Project Foundation, Inc., has housed the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Atlanta since 2002. The foundation was established in 1987 as a non-governmental organization with the mission of preserving, caring for and using the AIDS Memorial Quilt to inspire action, heighten awareness and foster healing in the age of AIDS. The entire quilt weighs 54 tons and includes more than 45,000 panels dedicated to more than 88,000 individuals. In the past 18 years, more than 15 million people have seen the quilt at displays around the world. In November 2005, the quilt was designated as one of "America's Treasures" and was awarded a "Save America's Treasures" federal grant that has established a conservation and preservation program for it. Information about the quilt is available at aidsquilt.org. Emory scientists and physicians are at the forefront of research efforts to develop effective drugs and vaccines against HIV and AIDS. The Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is an official National Institutes of Health CFAR site. More than 120 faculty throughout Emory are working on some aspect of HIV/AIDS prevention or treatment. Many of the scientists within the Emory Vaccine Center are focused on finding an effective vaccine against HIV, and Emory scientists are inventors of several of the most commonly used HIV/AIDS drugs. For more information about the event, visit Quilt on the Quad or contact Michael Rabkin, director of Emory Hillel, at 404-727-2089. In the event of rain, the "Quilt on the Quad" will be held in the Student Activity and Academic Center gym on Emory's Clairmont campus. ### Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system. Subscribe to News@Emory RSS feeds for automatic updates of the latest news at Emory. |
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