Quilt Project Gold Coast (QPGC) has been busy making new AIDS Memorial Quilts at our Quilting bees on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month at UU Ventura. We have also been finalizing preparations for Quilt displays and festival participation for 2026 in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
In this edition of The Stitch’n Times, you will read about the many events we had around World AIDS Day (Dec. 1). We reached thousands of people on the Gold Coast, remembering those we have lost to AIDS and, per our Mission Statement, raising awareness about the disease.
Ventura County had higher adjusted new HIV/AIDS infection rates for 2024, and preliminary 2025 numbers are even higher.
We are responding to this crisis by:
- including policy articles in each edition of The Stitch’n Times;
- focusing our PSAs at local at-risk populations in the Gold Coast;
- we are now providing safer-sex packets not only at our booths at local events, but Paddy’s in Ventura.
Quilt Project Gold Coast is dedicated to educating our community that AIDS is still affecting people’s lives in the Gold Coast, but there are many methods of prevention and many ways, if infected, to live a long and healthy life. The QPGC Board of Directors thanks everyone who has supported our allvolunteer nonprofit these past eight years. Remember the names.
Keith Coffman-Grey, President
Photo: Secretary Neil Coffman-Grey shows off the new QPGC table signage