Homemade quilts can provide warmth and comfort. So can the quilt that goes on display this week in Cedar Falls — but in a different way. The AIDS Memorial Quilt is known around the globe for raising awareness about the disease. Joan Thompson, health educator at the University of Northern Iowa, says the quilt is a huge tool for awareness, in eight sections measuring 12-by-12-feet each.Thompson says the massive quilt is comprised of many small sections which were sewn by people who lost a loved one to AIDS. She says it’ll be on the U-N-I campus, in part, to combat complacency about H-I-V prevention.There are 14-hundred-22 Iowans now diagnosed as living with AIDS. Iowa has recorded 799 deaths from AIDS since records were first kept on the subject in 1982. Thompson says everyone should come see the quilt next week to experience its unusual presence.The quilt will be on display Tuesday at U-N-I’s Schindler Education Center and Wednesday at the Maucker Union Expansion.
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