Six panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt come to Wilmington ahead of World AIDS Day

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Six panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt are on display in Wilmington to commemorate those who live or who have died of HIV or AIDS.

Panels of those quilts are being unveiled at the Betty H. Cameron Women’s & Children’s hospital to help honor World Aids Day, which is on December 1st.  The event, The Quilt Comes to Wilmington, was hosted by SEEDS of Healing. During Monday’s unveiling, speakers from Novant Health, as well as those affected by HIV or AIDS; spoke on the importance of the quilt.  Melinda Nahmias, who lost a long-time friend from AIDS and put his name on the quilt, said it’s important to learn from the past to help break stigmas in the future.

“To remember the lessons learned in that pandemic of how we treated those people, how we stigmatized them, how we kept them at arms length because we were afraid. I think that lesson has to be remembered and shared over and over again,” said Nahmias.

Additional quilts are being displayed around Wilmington currently at the UNCW Cultural Arts Building, Novant Health Regional Medical Center and UNCW’s Randall Library