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Over the course of the three-day event, some 70,000 names sewn into the Quilt will be read by celebrities, family members, AIDS activists, community and religious leaders, researchers, elected officials, artists and philanthropists.
Among those scheduled to read names during the opening ceremonies of the Quilt display on Friday, Oct. 11 at 8 a.m.: NAMES Project Founders Cleve Jones and Mike Smith; HIV-positive artist and educator Mary Fisher; writer Maya Angelou; actors Harvey Fierstein and Judith Light; Rev. Nathan D. Baxter, Dean of Washington National Cathedral; HIV-positive educator Joey di Paolo and his mother, Carol; and philanthropist James Hormel.
Other prominent figures reading names during the showing of the Quilt include: composer John Corigliano; Congressmen Barney Frank, Garry Studds and Steve Gunderson; Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer; actress Elizabeth Taylor; former umpire Dave Pallone; gay and lesbian rights activist Candace Gingrich; talk show hosts Cristina and Sally Jesse Raphael; singers Arlo Guthrie, Patti Smith and Chaka Khan.
"People from all walks of life and all parts of the world are coming to the Quilt to remember their dead and fight for the living," said Anthony Turney, executive director of the NAMES Project Foundation. "The diversity of those who read the names that are part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt is evidence of the swath of destruction that AIDS has cut through so many communities."
Since it was last shown in its entirety four years ago, the Quilt has doubled in size to comprise some 40,000 individual panels made in memory of people who have died from AIDS. Over Columbus Day weekend, the Quilt will blanket the National Mall from the Washington Monument to the U.S. Capitol Building, covering an area equivalent to 25 football fields and weighing more than 50 tons.
The Quilt will be visited by 750,000 people and will serve as the focal point for over 30 AIDS awareness events taking place during the weekend. These events include: "Rage Against the Dying of the Light," the 1996 National AIDS Candlelight March, sponsored by Whitman-Walker Clinic, the National Association of People With AIDS, and the NAMES Project Foundation; "Hands Around the Capitol," organized by Mothers' Voices, AIDS Action Council and Gay Men's Health Crisis; and "The Beat Goes On," LIFEbeat's VH1 special and benefit concert.
Founded in 1987, the NAMES Project Foundation sponsors and displays the AIDS Memorial Quilt to help bring an end to the epidemic. Through a network of 41 national chapters and 34 international affiliates, the Quilt is seen by 1 million people each year. To date, some 7 million people have visited the Quilt. Money raised at Quilt displays funds services for people living with HIV and AIDS.
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CONTACT: The NAMES Project Foundation Greg Lugliani, 202/296-2637 or 800/821-6091 (pager) Scott Williams, 415/882-5500
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