The red ribbons adorning campus trees have been taken down and prepared for burial, the memorial quilt panel no longer hangs in the Kresge Art Museum and the lights of Lansing’s holiday tree have been lit once again.
But Emily Flowers hopes people won’t forget about the disease behind those events, which caused the death of 10,198 Americans in 1999 alone - AIDS.
The nutrition science senior helped coordinate the on-campus projects through Olin Health Center for Friday’s World AIDS Day.
Flowers said she’s not sure how many students and community members volunteers reached, but she believes they made a difference.
“You can talk about AIDS all you want and try to say the impact of it, but people don’t realize it until they see it in front of them,” Flowers said. “I think that people actually looking at campus, seeing the pictures, made them realize these are real people with this disease.”
The panel that hung in Kresge from the AIDS memorial quilt was met with some sadness, but mostly with interest, said center volunteer Christina Burke, an art history and Chinese senior.
“There’s a lot that can be conveyed in a quilt,” she said. “So much of a person’s personality can be put into a piece of material.”
Lamont Clegg, the public relations director for Kresge, said he felt having even one panel of the quilt’s 32,000 in the museum was a more positive approach to AIDS awareness than past efforts.
The museum participated in the Day Without Art movement in previous years by draping black cloth over the art to signify what those who have died of AIDS would be missing.
“I think it’s a gentle reminder,” Clegg said. “We’re a gentle museum. It’s a good way for Kresge to have some impact for education about the disease.
“Each panel tells a story.”
Clegg was also the soloist for the memorial service held Friday evening at Lansing’s Central United Methodist Church, 215 N. Capital Ave. He said he was honored to sing at the service but stressed that one day’s activities are not enough to solve a problem.
Pre-med and nutrition science senior Abigail Schaner said coming from a small town, she was completely unaware of the problems and harassment people with AIDS face.
“I think people have a lot of stigmatism against gay people and people with AIDS,” said Schaner, a Hart, Mich., native. “I was guilty of it when I came here.”
As an employee for the Lansing Area AIDS Network, Schaner said she has gained new knowledge and acceptance about people who are living with the disease.
Coming to see the quilt, she said, was the least she could do.
