East Lansing will be no exception, with events today and Friday. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, a panel of the HIV/AIDS Memorial Quilt will be at the Kresge Art Museum. At 11 a.m., the Greater Lansing World AIDS Day Observance will take place at Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road.

The observance is being hosted by the Lansing Area AIDS Network, or LAAN. The event will feature the Greater Lansing Gay Men’s Chorus as well as local speakers who are living with HIV/AIDS. A representative for the Nyaka AIDS Orphan School in Uganda also will speak.

Olin Health Center will host a candlelight vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the rock on Farm Lane.

“It’s especially relevant and topical because so many younger people are becoming infected with HIV in spite of knowing all of the different ways to not get infected,” said Nancy English, auxiliary services coordinator for LAAN.

According to data from LAAN, half of new HIV infections happen to people 25 years old or younger. Estimates say there are about 18,000 people in Michigan with HIV or AIDS.

MSU’s Olin Health Center provides free and anonymous HIV testing. Twenty-seven percent of MSU students have been tested for HIV/AIDS, according to an e-mail from Julia Rice, a health advocate at Olin.

The tests are painless and don’t require blood to be drawn, English said.

LAAN also will be hosting the Red Ribbon Gala on Friday at Eagle Eye Golf Course in Bath Township. There will be live and silent auctions and a strolling dinner to raise money for direct care services and assistance for those with HIV/AIDS in Mid-Michigan, said Patrick Lombardi, development director for LAAN. Tickets for the gala are $100.

“We want to remind people that they need to take precautions and necessary steps — practice safe sex and take the lead and get tested,” English said.