About 75 students and members of the Ames community braved chilly temperatures last night to hold a candlelight vigil in support of the national movement to spread awareness about AIDS.

As part of AIDS Awareness Week, the vigil was comprised of three groups marching from Towers Residence Halls, Target and Emma McCarthy Lee Park to converge at Lake Laverne.

Members of the group bowed their heads in a prayer for all those whose lives have been affected by the virus. Candles still lit, they proceeded to march to the Memorial Union to listen to several speakers and view a portion of the AIDS quilt on display in the Great Hall.

The night’s theme was “Faces of AIDS,” said Denise Swanson, director of fine arts for the Student Union Board and organizer of the week’s activities, in order to personalize the disease and rid people of the myth that HIV is a virus that will never touch their lives.

Swanson said the night’s speakers were to include people who have tested positive for the HIV virus, people with full-blown AIDS, and people who have lost family members to the disease.

“The purpose of this presentation is to put a face with the name that you hear,” Swanson said. “It’s so easy to say it happens to somebody else, but these people are normal people. This makes people realize that it can happen to anyone.”

Of the students present last night, most said they were there in an attempt to “do something” to help the AIDS awareness movement.

Ames High School students Sarah Lawson and Annie Gatewood, both present at the vigil, said AIDS Awareness Week has been largely overlooked at their school.

They added that a speech on AIDS given at the high school Wednesday was narrowly tailored to conform to the school district’s rule against mentioning condoms in class.

“I think it was really terrible that they can’t talk about prevention and condoms,” Lawson said.

The Ames High students said they heard of the night’s activities because of their relationships with people active in the movement.

“It’s an outrage, really,” Gatewood said. “To me, being here means doing something, even if it’s nothing big.”

Justin Holtkamp, a senior in marketing, was working at the Memorial Union as a volunteer security guard for AIDS Awareness Week during the vigil.

“I think this is just a great educational tool to use to bring awareness to campus,” Holtkamp said.

“I think it’s a great cause. [AIDS] is something that affects every aspect of the community, whether heterosexual or homosexual. It’s a part of life.”

Holtkamp, a member of Alpha Kappa Lambda Fraternity, said each member of his fraternity volunteered to work five hours this week to assist the AIDS Coalition.