Laguna Beach’s downtown trees will be adorned with card enscribed with the name of one of the 500 local residents claimed by HIV/AIDS since 1981 in recognition of World AIDS Day this Sunday, Dec. 1.
Free HIV testing and an evening vigil, both at Main Beach, as well as a free concert and program at the museum will also serve as the town’s remembrance and memorial.
Members of the Laguna Beach HIV Advisory Committee, with help from high school students, will string up the annual reminders with red and black ribbons on tree trunks.
With the help of a city grant, Kim de StPaer and the staff of the Laguna Beach Community Clinic will give free HIV tests at 2 p.m on the cobblestones at Main Beach. Results will be ready in just twenty minutes.
Bring beach chairs and blankets as well for a free concert from 2-4 p.m., also on the cobblestones, featuring OC Music Award winner Jason Feddy and NBC’s “The Winner Is!” finalists The Kalama Brothers.
At 5 p.m., Pastor B.J. Beu of Neighborhood Congregational Church will lead a candlelight remembrance to honor those who have died of AIDS, also at Main Beach.
A World Aids Day tradition continues at the Laguna Art Museum, with a free program from 2-4 p.m. that will include a musical performance by the Orange County Gay Men’s
Chorus, a high school juried art competition award presentation and a special exhibition of panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the largest ongoing piece of community folk art in the world
Guest speakers include AIDS Service Foundation Executive Director Phillip Yaeger, the museum’s chairman, Robert Hayden III, and photographer Kurt Weston.
