IRVINE : School to Stress AIDS Awareness

Students at University High School on Wednesday will begin a week of AIDS awareness activities designed in part to generate interest in this weekend’s AIDS Walk Orange County.

On Wednesday, students will have a chance to examine panels from the International AIDS Memorial Quilt, knitted by friends and family members of AIDS sufferers.

“This is to raise awareness of what the quilt is and what it stands for,” said Stephen C. Chavez, spokesman for the Orange County Red Cross, which is helping coordinate the events. “It’s a very moving piece of work.”

On Thursday, two forums on “Teens and AIDS” will be conducted, with a panel of HIV-positive young people discussing the virus and their experiences with it.

“We hope it will help (students) see that this is not just something you see on TV,” Chavez said. “It should raise awareness that it can be your neighbors, not just people far off” who contract the AIDS virus.

An AIDS rally will be held at noon Friday, with speakers and information booths.

Later that day, University High students will hold an AIDS march from the school to Woodbridge Lake, where they will meet students from Woodbridge High School.

At the lake, students will hold a candlelight vigil in support of people with AIDS.

The events of this week are dedicated to Vincent Chalk, a former University High School instructor who died of AIDS several years ago, according to Chavez.

AIDS Walk Orange County is scheduled for June 13 at the UC Irvine campus.