Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 17, 1993 TAG: 9302170180
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
RED-INK STAMP COMMEMORATES AIDS DEAD
The Marriott Inn has started stamping the hands of patrons of the Blacksburg lounge with a red-ink ribbon.In recent years, the red ribbon has become a symbol of rememberence for those who have died AIDS.
At the Marriott, too, the ribbon is supposed to serve as a reminder of AIDS and of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, said Mike Petruzzi, lounge manager.
The new stamp is not meant to condemn or condone any type of behavior - that is not the company's job, Petruzzi said.
"It's just a reminder that the illness is out there and that it needs to be recognized. It's something we feel is in the public interest. When you look at your hand, it will remind you. Every time you take a drink or wash your hand, it will remind you of the AIDS issue."
Petruzzi said there is a deep need for awareness, "especially in Southwest Virginia where people feel it's not going to touch them."
Petruzzi said the Marriott staff started trying to think of ways to quietly promote AIDS awareness last semester.
"It's not easy to get to people to wear ribbons or read posters or even watch news," he said.
Then Tara Jankoski, a member of the New River Valley AIDS Coalition, came up with the idea of the stamp.
"You have to have it to enter the bar or to leave," Petruzzi said. "We're not trying to impose an issue on anyone. This is a passive reminder."
The Marriott introduced the new stamp Tuesday night, one of the lounge's busiest nights of the week.
Jankoski said she is working with other bars in downtown Blacksburg and that two more may start using similar stamps soon. She said she hopes to work with bars in Radford as well.
The introduction of the stamp fell during Condom Awareness Week, but Petruzzi said the two were not directly related. Condom awareness and premarital sex are personal and religious issues, he said.
Jankoski's original idea was to get bars to hand out condoms.
"But that can easily be misconstrued as promoting sex, and we wanted to get away from the issue of safe sex and just hit on AIDS awareness."
One local bar will be handing out condoms this week, but that bar did not want to be identified, Jankoski said.
According to literature from Virginia Tech's Student Health Services, the red ribbon also is a symbol that the wearer understands how HIV is transmitted and that no one deserves to get the disease.