Panel of AIDS Memorial Quilt visits UNC in effort to raise awareness

A panel of The AIDS Memorial Quilt, on display at UNC, is recognizing the University's dedication to HIV/AIDS research.

The quilt began in 1987 as a way to commemorate those who died of AIDS with panels sewn together by friends, lovers and family members. The quilt is the world’s largest community project, with more than 48,000 panels.

The panel displayed at UNC commemorates Jeremy Trefney, who died of AIDS in 1988. With the help of Executive Vice Provost Ron Strauss, sophomore Elizabeth Trefney, Trefney's niece, brought it to UNC. 

Elizabeth Trefney discovered that her uncle had a memorial panel in The AIDS Memorial Quilt while taking a public health course at UNC.

“I felt really connected to the material,” Trefney said. “I remember we talked about the quilt once in class, and I looked it up, and I didn't even known that he had a panel and when I saw it, I was inspired to use that to raise awareness."

The panel, which was made by Jeremey Trefney’s friends: Lorrie Morrison Snyder, Gale Arthurs and Ted Holdsworth, had been on display in the National Mall in Washington, D.C. along with the rest of the Quilt during the 1990s. Today, the Quilt has too many pieces to be displayed in its entirety in one public place, so many pieces have travelled around the world to be put on display.

"I think it's so important that the quilt visits UNC and that it goes to so many different places, because it really keeps the memories of so many people who have died of AIDS alive,” Trefney said. “It also serves as a reminder of both this tragic history and also as a reminder of the fact that the fight isn't over, because new panels continue to be added."

Lee Roberts, Student Organizations Program Coordinator for the Carolina Union, stopped to gaze at the panel, which hangs from the ceiling in the Union. 

"I identify in the queer community, and there's a lot of emotions just looking at it and knowing sort of the journey that these people have taken," Roberts said. 

UNC is a global pioneer in HIV research. Dr. David Margolis, director of the UNC HIV Cure Center, is one of many researching HIV treatment in the UNC community. He explained how far  HIV prevention, medication and therapy, in addition to access to such treatments, have come.

“Now, therapy is essentially able to restore people to essentially normal health and a normal life span (by) taking a pill a day,” Margolis said. 

Looking toward the future, Margolis said that the hope is to advance long-acting therapy for patients, such as injections that can last for months or implants that could last up to a year, instead of daily pills.

“There's still, of course, a long way to go," Margolis said. "There are millions and millions of people that are infected and hundreds of thousands of people being affected every year, but we're making advances and you can look hopefully towards the future and see that we should be able to deliver these advances over time across the world.” 

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