It was a tri-county month of Pride festivals for Quilt Project in June, beginning Jun. 6 in Ventura County at Camarillo Pride (above), put on by the LAWIC (“Love Always Wins in Camarillo”) Foundation. Our volunteers displayed many Quilts and answered questions about AIDS and the Quilt.

And this year for the first time in Santa Barbara County, QPGC worked with Santa Ynez Valley Pride to show a dozen AIDS Memorial Quilts there.

SYVP puts on the only Pride parade in the Central Coast, with other Prides putting on picnics, festivals or walks, and QPGC is pondering whether to walk in the short parade holding Quilts in 2027 as well as a booth and display – what do you think?

It was on to San Luis Obispo County Jun. 14 for We Are Atascadero Pride’s namesake festival.

WAAP had contacted QPGC for the past several years to put on a display of AIDS Memorial Quilts, but with so many events in June it had been nearly impossible.

However, this year with AIDS LifeCycle now done the calendar opened up, which allowed us to trek up to Atascadero the day after Solvang and show many of our Quilts to SLO County residents.

Other Pride Month Activities

It was a triple sweep of the tri-counties for Quilt Project Gold Coast, with demonstrations and festivals galore in addition to our Quilting bees during June Pride Month. But there were also smaller, important appearances by QPGC that underscored the message that HIV and AIDS are still with us, affecting the lives of our communities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

The City of Ventura issued a proclamation for June Pride Month on June 3, with Mark Lager and Diversity Collective of Ventura County’s Celia Sandhya Daniels receiving proclamations.

The City of Santa Barbara also declared Pride Month, with Keith Coffman-Grey and Pacific Pride’s Executive Director Julio Roman receiving proclamations on June 9.

The City of Ventura on June 11 raised the Progress Pride flag, and Mark was on hand to speak about the Quilt Project at City Hall to those in attendance.