Twenty five years ago the people working at Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco -facing the loss of colleagues, friends and family members to a then new disease- came together to support each other and raise awareness about HIV and AIDS by creating a panel for an AIDS Memorial Quilt. During the recently concluded AIDS 2012 conference in Washington DC, Levi Strauss & Co. presented a new panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which they dedicated to The NAMES Project. The NAMES Project started in June 1987, when a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS and to help people understand the devastating impact of the disease. 25 years later the AIDS Memorial Quilt is composed of more than 48,000 panels, it has been nominated for a Nobel Prize (1989), carries the name and memory of more than 94,000 victims and is now an official national treasure.

The new panel by Levi Strauss & Co. is a patchwork of recycled denim and it displays the words of their employees from around the world. The company, who has been fighting HIV/AIDS througout the years on many levels with their Levi Strauss Foundation, will be touring their panel throughout their stores and offices around the world until the end of the year, so keep an eye on your local Levi Strauss Store, who knows it might may visit your city too!

If you want to know more about the NAMES Project, please visit them here: http://www.aidsquilt.org/