APRIL 22, 1994 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
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M MENON OF KEITHILLE
LEE ANN MCGUIRE
'These people were real, somebody loved them'
by Rich Thomas
To the plaintive sounds of meditative music and with the intonation of names of individuals lost to AIDS, the multi-colored panels of the Names Project Memorial AIDS Quilt unfolded like blossoms and billowed like so many lives.
The occasion was the opening ceremony of the April 7-11 display of the Names Project Quilt at Ohio State University.
Hundreds of people viewed the Quilt at that opening, remembering the lives and love the panels represent. Thousands attended during the course of the weekend.
Almost 500 volunteers helped to coordinate the presentation and facilitate and support the visitors to the Quilt.
Readers of the many names in the Quilt included leaders of local AIDS service.organizations and agencies such as the Columbus Health Department's Debbie Coleman and Carolyn O'Neil, the Columbus AIDS Task Force's Gloria Smith and Annetta Carter, and the AIDS Service Connection's Rocky Morrison. Each included the names of friends and loved ones at the end of his or her reading.
"I'm here," Rocky Morrison said so emotionally that he was almost numb. "It's difficult, really difficult."
One person living with AIDS named Matt said, "The hardest part about being in there is hearing the list of names read on and on. Eventually they all sound the same. I don't want to be one of the names read."
That fear of anonymity is a metaphor for the endless drone of those lost to the AIDS epidemic. The Quilt offers a balancing metaphor by personalizing those individual's lives in each panel made by friends and loved ones.
After seven years of existence, the Quilt now contains more than 26,000 panels. That represents about 13 percent of the reported AIDS deaths in the United States.
This OSU display included 640 panels, many memorializing persons from the Central Ohio area who have died of complications due to AIDS.
New panels recently made locally were also received to be added to the Quilt. Of the 56 new panels received, 32 came from Columbus, 16 from Cleveland and 8 from Cincinnati.
The Names Project Foundation has three stated goals:
To illustrate the enormity of the AIDS epidemic by showing the humanity behind the statistics;
To provide a positive and creative means of expression for those whose lives have been touched by the epidemic; and
To raise vital funds and encourage support for persons living with AIDS and HIV infection and their loved ones.
In her welcoming remarks OSU Vice President Linda Tom said the Quilt serves to bring people closer together on the is-
sues.
OSU Student Events Committee President Kerrie Laubenthal said, "I see students who are bombarded daily and are immune to the AIDS message."
The OSU Quilt display was directed at student awareness, to hit them in the face and shake students from their complacency, another host committee member said.
Sandy Fauver, mother of Columbusite Rob Fauver memorialized in two of the Quilt's panels in this display, described her reactions in terms of a political challenge. “I hope a lot of people wake up and smell the roses and get over homophobia," she said. Others are dying, too, she said. "These people were real. Somebody loved them. Don't let them die in vain."
Tissue boxes lined the display room as tears readily flowed for the lost lives, the lost loves. Hugs of support and tender smiles were abundant as people grieved, learned and found new commitment to fight AIDS.
One couple from Vinton County spent their entire weekend at the Quilt, volunteering and sharing their story. With one panel representing their son Frankie already in the display, they brought another from his nieces and nephews. Frankie Wachovec had given them personalized T-shirts dubbing them "The Rugrats," and the new Quilt panel was a message of love from them.
Parents Frank and Rosemary Wachovec are two of the five members of the Vinton County AIDS Task Force. In the smallest of the state's 88 counties, they serve much of Southern Ohio with anonymous HIV testing, counseling and education.
"They (the people of Vinton County) have their heads in the sand," Mr. Wachovec said. "Our job is very difficult."
He bemoaned the fact his son is a statistic in Columbus, that Southern Ohio does not understand the face of AIDS. He described the Quilt as a very personalizing way to understand.
"If this don't affect you, nothing will," Wachovec said. "Every race, creed, color, age and sexual preference is here. Nobody is exempt from it."
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