Sections of the national AIDS Memorial Quilt are on display in Connecticut this week.
Saint James' Episcopal Church in Danbury is displaying two 12 foot-by-12 foot sections of the quilt through Sunday.
The quilt, which weighs 54 tons, commemorates more than 110,000 individuals who lost their lives to AIDS, according to the National AIDS Memorial.
Activist Cleve Jones began the quilt memorial project in the 1980s, and it's considered the largest community arts project in history, according to the memorial organization.
Sections of the quilt are on display around the country the first week of June.
"It's really to honor the people who've passed, to honor their lives and their families," said the Rev. Gina Gore, the church rector. "It's an incredible honor for us to be able to do, and also it really is a symbol of our identity as Episcopalians, to be inclusive and loving of all people."
Betsy Bergeron, who leads the LGBTQ+ ministry at Saint James’, said the quilt is as important as ever.
"Every day, 5,000 people are infected with AIDS," Bergeron said. "We have to just keep educating. Hopefully a display like this will just remind people that these are real people. These are lives that were lost."
"If someone comes to see it, they will never think about AIDS the same way," Bergeron said. "When you put a personal viewpoint on something like this, you can't help but be changed."
Gore said viewing the quilt is emotional.
She read a message the church received from a man who she saw cry while viewing a panel memorializing a man named Kevin Scott Quimby.
"'Kevin was the same age I am now. He was only 33,'" Gore read. "'So many lives lost because of fear and bigotry, and it continues even now. I am full of a deep sadness and rage. May we try to make a better and loving, kinder future.'"
Quimby's panel includes a poem: "I love to watch the ocean / With the waves washing on the shore / I pray to God to ease my pain / My life has meaning no more."
Growing emotional, Gore said the panel is "hard to read."
"My feeling is that his life has and had so much meaning," Gore said. "Just by displaying this quilt here, I hope that we can help give it meaning. It's very, very touching."
Visit the quilt
The quilt sections are on display in the Saint James' Episcopal Church sanctuary, 25 West St., Danbury, on the following days and times:
Thursday, June 4: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday, June 5: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 6: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 7: 7:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
