Ceremony Kicks Off Campaign to Collect Names for Los Angeles AIDS Monument

With nearly 80% of a Los Angeles AIDS monument completed, families and friends gather to remember loved ones and submit their names as part of a campaign kick off to collect names for the monument's memorial panels.

(PRWEB) April 10, 2004 --Families and friends came together this week to remember the loved ones they lost to AIDS and to submit their names for inclusion in the memorial panels of an AIDS monument in Lincoln Park, on the eastside of Los Angeles that is nearly 80% complete. The builders of the monument, The Wall-Las Memorias Project, expect that as many as 8,000 names will eventually be submitted and added to the panels.

The ceremony - Ceremony of the Names / Ceremonia de las Memorias - officially launched the Names Submission Campaign of the AIDS monument. Members of the public are invited to submit names of loved ones who have been lost to AIDS on forms that are available through participating AIDS organizations and The Wall-Las Memorias Projects website: www.thewalllasmemorias.org/monument/application.html. The cost of processing one name is $29, but the cost can be waived if a submitter agrees to volunteer five hours of their time.

Joining parents, friends and clergy were singer and actress Apollonia and City AIDS Commissioner Stephen Simon.

Today, we come together in a simple and meaningful ceremony to remember the loved ones we have lost to AIDS," said Richard Zaldivar, executive director and founder of The Wall-Las Memorias Project. Like the AIDS monument, we stand in remembrance of people lost to this disease. When we remember them and their contributions to our lives, we break through the silence, shame and denial that afflicts our community."

After the monument is built, in the years to come, we will continue to come together and remember the many people who have died of AIDS - both those whom we have loved, and those who have been forgotten," said singer and actress Apollonia, a long-time supporter of the project.

Several mothers spoke of the sons they lost to AIDS. Angie Apodaca of Montebello expressed hope that families would get involved and submit names. Sylvia Marquez of La Puente found it fitting that the monument would be located in the park where she took her late son to play as a child.    

With the launch of the Names Submission Campaign, the final leg of a 10-year journey to construct the monument begins. Construction of the 9,000 square foot monument is well under way. The site has been graded and is now being prepared to welcome the six panels of art and two panels of names. Forty five percent of the monuments square footage is devoted to landscaping and will include a medicinal garden.

Organizers stress that the monument is built on behalf of all people who have died of AIDS, and that people who live outside of Los Angeles County are invited to submit names of the loved ones they have lost.

The mission of The Wall-Las Memorias Project is to educate the Latino community about HIV/AIDS and the ways that shame, denial and fear contribute to the spread of HIV. The AIDS monument has been envisioned as not only a memorial to those who have died of AIDS, but as a place for family members and friends to visit and seek solace, and, most important, as an educational tool in the fight against HIV.

Renderings of the monument and photos of its mural panels can be viewed at the organizations website at www.thewalllasmemorias.org/monument.

TO EDITORS: We can provide photos at your request. Please contact Keith Malone at keithmalone@sbcglobal.net or at (323) 441-0000.
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