Fall is here, and Quilt Project Gold Coast (QPGC) is looking forward to a busy season of awareness and education about HIV and AIDS.

October is AIDS Awareness Month. This year will be our 4th Annual AIDS Quilt Memorial Procession (see p.3) down State Street in Santa Barbara on Oct. 18 at 4pm. We always need volunteers to help carry the Quilts in remembrance to those we have lost to AIDS, so please join us.

QPGC will also have a booth on Oct. 7 at Moorpark College for their annual health fair, where we’ll be handing out condoms and safer sex literature.

On Sunday, Nov.16 at 4pm, Paddy McDermott’s is hosting Drag Queen Bingo to benefit QPGC! This will be a fun event with lots of amazing prizes, so get there early for a good seat.

World AIDS Day is Dec. 1, and our annual observance will again take place on the front steps of Ventura City Hall, with a display of several dozen panels from 2:30-5:30 pm followed by a candlelight vigil from 5:30-6:30 pm.

Rev. Manny Edgar-Beltran will officiate along with other local clergy, and Andy Edgar-Beltran of I’ve Seen Better Elephants will be performing a musical selection. The City of Ventura provides the battery-powered candles, and Deputy Mayor Doug Halter will read the City of Ventura proclamation.

Of course, we are busy in the weeks preceding and following World AIDS Day, and on Nov. 19 QPGC will host a Quilting bee and display of panels at Cal Lutheran University. On Nov. 30 we will be at All Saints Church in Oxnard for their Sunday morning services, and on Dec. 7 we will be at UU Santa Paula. Watch for more events in November’s edition of The Stitch’n Times.

With summer over, we look back in this newsletter on our Aug. 16 booth at Ventura Pride, and our Gallery of Quilts at Santa Barbara Pride on Aug. 23. We want to thank Pacific Pride Foundation for providing the space for our Gallery of over 40 Quilts (our largest ever in the county) at the festival entrance. In addition to our Quilting bees, it was definitely a productive summer.