AIDS Quilt to Be Shown in Palmdale

For six months they have been working to sum up the life of a loved one on a piece of cloth.

They will hand over those patches of cloth, adorned with photographs, jewelry and messages of love, so they can become part of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, a portion of which will be in the Antelope Valley on Nov. 14-16.

It is the first time the quilt, comprised of more than 25,000 panels made by friends, family and lovers of someone who died from AIDS, will be displayed in this north Los Angeles County region. And those who have worked to bring it here hope its presence will help educate the community about acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

“People . . . they’re very ignorant here,” said Lancaster resident Lydia Servetnick. “They need to be educated.”

One of the biggest problems, she said, is that people continue to wrongly believe that AIDS is a “gay disease. Instead of teaching love, they’re teaching hate.”

Servetnick and her husband, Harold, lost a son to the disease. Two years ago they made a quilt panel for him. It will be one of the 440 panels that will be displayed here starting Sunday.

“It’s exciting and it’s very depressing at the same time,” Servetnick said of the return of the cloth she and her husband decorated in their son’s honor. “When you finally give (the panel) up, it’s like saying goodby to Neil all over again. And then, every time you see it, it’s like saying hello and then saying goodby again.”

For Emilia Fierro, making a panel for the two brothers she lost to AIDS has been a cathartic experience.

“I wanted something to remember them by,” she said. “I wanted it to be tangible. I wanted it to be permanent.”

It was in 1985 that gay rights activist Cleve Jones came up with the idea for the quilt. Work on it began two years later, and at last count there were 25,246 panels, enough to cover 10 football fields.

It was the Servetnicks who first suggested the AIDS Memorial Quilt be brought to the Antelope Valley. Since their son died, AIDS education has been an important part of their lives.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services estimates that some 46,000 county residents are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. As of Sept. 30, there were 22,322 confirmed AIDS cases in the county and since 1980 there have been 14,487 AIDS-caused deaths.

Brian Maxey, a member of the Antelope Valley Faces Up to AIDS committee, the host group bringing the quilt to the region, said many local residents believe that AIDS does not exist in the Antelope Valley.

But Maxey noted that at least half of the 16 quilt panels made here in preparation for the display are for local residents who died from AIDS.

Through a series of fund-raising events throughout the summer to cover the $3,500 cost of bringing the quilt to the community, the AV Faces Up to AIDS committee raised more than $10,000. The surplus money, Maxey said, will be used to assist local people with AIDS.

“I wasn’t so sure we could pull it off, that the community would back us,” said Maxey, who is HIV positive. “This has changed my way of thinking, It’s really changed my opinion of the Antelope Valley.”

The region received national attention earlier this year after an anti-gay video produced by a Lancaster church was distributed to members of Congress. News about the efforts to bring the panel here has raised considerably more awareness, committee members said, than controversy.

Harold Servetnick said, “I feel we’ve reached a goal. Now we have to make sure we continue.”

The NAMES Project Quilt will be on display from noon to 8 p.m. Nov. 14-16 at the Palmdale Cultural Center, 704 East Palmdale Blvd. Admission is free. As at all displays of the quilt, names of people who have died of AIDS will be read throughout the showing.

An opening ceremony is scheduled for noon on Sunday. The 16 panels that were made in the Antelope Valley will become part of the quilt at a dedication ceremony 7 p.m. Nov. 16.