Countywide : UCI Will Observe AIDS Day

UC Irvine will play host to an array of AIDS-awareness events in conjunction with the seventh annual World AIDS Day today.

Organizers expect to draw about 600 county residents to this year’s program, themed “AIDS and Families” and beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the campus Student Center.

The program includes American Red Cross HIV/AIDS poster awards and a performance by STOP-GAP, an education theater group, of “comPASSION,” an interactive play about living with HIV/AIDS. The evening will end with families dedicating panels stitched for the AIDS quilt project and a candlelight vigil.

The UC Irvine School of Fine Arts will sponsor “Artists and AIDS Project,” a collage of prose, poetry, music and artwork by New York artists such as David Greenspan and Diamanda Galas and activist groups such as ACT UP/New York.

Elsewhere in Orange County, the city of Laguna Beach will decorate all parking meters with red ribbons, inscribed with about 350 names of Laguna Beach residents who died of or are living with AIDS.

St. Clement’s By-the-Sea Episcopal Church in San Clemente will hold a candlelight AIDS Mass at 7 p.m. to remember those who have died or are living with AIDS. Panels from the AIDS quilt will hang in the church, at 202 Avenida Aragon.

Delhi Community Center in Santa Ana will unveil a mural, “AIDS and the Family,” by youths in the Latino community.

For more information about the activities, call the UC Irvine Student Center at (714) 824-8206, UC School of Irvine Fine Arts at (714) 824-4259 or Delhi Community Center at (714) 568-0496.