As a part of AIDS Awareness Week, a candlelight vigil will take place tonight involving Iowa State students and members of the Ames community.

Each candle will represent those who have died from the disease and remind people of the current fight against HIV.

“We want to provide a visual display of support of the fight against AIDS,” said Leslie Melvin, adviser of the Student Union Board.

People are encouraged to meet at 5 p.m., she said, at one of three locations: Target’s parking lot, Emma McCarthy Lee Park or Towers Residence Association.

She said the three locations form a sort of triangle, with points east, west and south of the Memorial Union. Each location will have up to fifty candles for people who are not able to bring their own.

Participants will then walk with illuminated candles from the three off-campus points to converge at Lake Laverne.

Melvin said she hopes between 200 and 300 people decide to participate in the march. “Our goal is to have a lot take part,” she said.

“If people do nothing else, they should at least see a visual demonstration of other people getting involved and see that [AIDS] really does impact our community,” Melvin said.

She said it is important for the Vigil to have support. “Threads are just like people — they’re stronger when they come together,” she quoted an anonymous commentator on the Names Project Foundation AIDS quilt project, which dedicates personalized patches to different people who have died of AIDS.

After the march, participants will be encouraged to attend the “Faces of AIDS” program at 6:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Hot chocolate and coffee will be provided to warm up people after their treks.

In addition, participants can view patches of the National AIDS Quilt in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.

The “Faces of AIDS” program will include speakers from Des Moines and Ames who have lost family or friends to AIDS and people who have been care givers to AIDS victims. This program should further enforce the reality of AIDS in this area, Melvin said.

The vigil, a new addition to AIDS Awareness Week activities this year, was a joint planning effort of the Student Union Board, Students and Staff Against AIDS and several other organizations.

“Hopefully it’ll be a yearly event,” Melvin said.