Students, faculty and staff around MCC observed World AIDS Day yesterday with commemorations of all who have lost their lives to or are living with HIV or AIDS. Ceremonies and displays told the story of the disease that has largely fallen out of the mainstream public eye despite staggering statistics that illustrate the disease's persistence.
Twenty million people around the world have died since HIV was identified in 1981.
Forty million people around the world are living with the disease today.
In their honor and memory, here are some of the ways MCC brought AIDS and HIV back into the spotlight on this solemn day of rememberance.
MCC-Maple Woods
Students from Maple Woods' Gay-Straight Alliance placed red boxes in all of the campus buildings earlier in the week to collect names of people that students, staff and faculty had lost to HIV/AIDS. The GSA students then collected and read the 69 submitted names at a memorial ceremony in the Student Center, where the usual hustle and bustle fell silent as the names were read, said campus life and leadership coordinator Misty Chandler, who supported the student-led effort.
Organizers also asked students to write messages to describe their reasons for fighting AIDS, and the 45 messages submitted were then hung on the wall of the Student Center.
To provide additional information about prevention measures, representatives from the Kansas City Free Health Clinic staffed a booth where they answered questions and handed out informational brochures and red ribbons, a well-recognized symbol of AIDS awareness. The GSA set out donation boxes at the table to raise money for the clinic and the Good Samaritan Project, another nonprofit organization the provides service to people living with HIV and AIDS.
MCC-Penn Valley
Biology instructor Nancy Harrington, with the help of student leaders, hosted a memorial ceremony in the Campus Center, where names of loved ones lost by members of the Penn Valley community were read alongside names of other Kansas Citians who have died from HIV/AIDS. A display table in the lobby provided students and employees with information and materials, like condoms, that stress the importance of individual responsibility in stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS. The PowerPoint below, created by Harrington, caused passers-by to stop in their tracks to read about the disease.
Harrington, who specializes in sexual-health education, has been coordinating AIDS awareness efforts at MCC for years, most notably as the primary organizer of an MCC team for the city-wide AIDS Walk held every spring. Through her AIDS Walk contributions, she has also become involved with the AIDS Service Foundation of Kansas City, a network of nonprofit organizations that serve people living with HIV and AIDS. As a kick-off to World AIDS Day, Harrington hosted a small group of MCC employees and students at a luncheon hosted by the ASF.
MCC-Blue River
Staff and students organized a display table that featured information about prevention of HIV/AIDS, as well as information about other sexually-transmitted diseases. The PowerPoint presentation developed by Penn Valley's Nancy Harrington played in a loop next to the display.
