AIDS quilt on display across metro Atlanta

Stephanie Laster finds healing power in each stitch she makes on panels honoring relatives affected by HIV/AIDS.

The panels, four in all, will be added to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which will be on display in metro Atlanta on Wednesday for the annual observance of World AIDS Day.

There's one for her mother, a peer counselor who loved doing hair. She died of AIDS-related complications just a few days short of her 56th birthday.

There are others for her uncle and his wife, who also died of AIDS complications, and one for her nephew -- whom she helped raise -- who lived with HIV for 23 years before he died of a massive brain hemorrhage.

"I guess it shows that even though you might have adversity or obstacles in your life, you can overcome them," said Laster, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1997. "Each one of these stitches has been a healing process for me."

A 64-block section of the quilt will be on display at Pemberton Place, next to the World of Coca-Cola, the Georgia Aquarium and the future home of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Each block is comprised of eight panels, created one at a time. The display, in the shape of a ribbon, will begin at noon as volunteers unfold the quilt sections that include more than 500 handmade panels.

Similar displays of parts of the quilt will be held around the nation, including at several metro junior high and high schools and at Emory University, which will host a display of the quilt containing more than 1,200 panels. The Emory program runs from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.

World AIDS Day is set aside globally to raise awareness about the disease, its prevention and to tackle the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than one million people are living with HIV in the United States. Of those, one in five are unaware that they're infected.

"HIV is the forgotten epidemic," said Julie Rhoad, president and CEO of The NAMES Project Foundation, which relocated to Atlanta from San Francisco in 2001.

Although people with HIV/AIDS are living much longer because of advances in medicine, "that's not something we should take lightly," she said. Rhoad said people still face issues like dealing with the stigma and access to treatment. "The reality is that it's everyone's problem."

The NAMES Project is the international caretaker of the quilt. Today, there are more than 47,000 panels that include more than 92,000 names of people who have died from complications of AIDS.