Power of Community $1,000 grant goes to AIDS Memorial

It's a sad reality, but many of us have a personal connection to the AIDS crisis. It might be a loved one we cherished who tragically died from the disease or perhaps someone we know and love who is still living with the virus.

While we can now thankfully say there have been great strides made in the fight against the devastating disease, it's important we never forget how it ended the lives of so many and forever changed the lives of those who survived.

This legacy to remember those lost to AIDS was the inspiration for the Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Sculpture. It has been a passion project for many years and is now close to completion, thanks to a committed task force.

"It is the mission of the Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Sculpture Task Force to ensure the lives of those lost to HIV and AIDS are never forgotten and that their stories are remembered into the future," says task force member Mike Richey.

The team was able to secure a prime location for the sculpture in the public park across from the Palm Springs Art Museum, thanks to the City of Palm Springs. Add to that the most generous offer of creating the 9-foot interactive sculpture pro bono from award-winning local artist Phillip K. Smith lll, and you have the start of something fabulous.

Smith says: "It's a literal touchstone. People will be able to put their hands on it. There will be a QR code as well that will bring up the names and stories of those we have lost to AIDS as well as info on how to access health care and other important information."

Many of the task force members like Jeffrey Jurasky and Arturo Fernandez have moving personal stories that inspired them to commit to the project.

Ann Sheffer, former chair of the Palm Springs Public Arts Commission, says: "We were so happy to be able to get the plan approved and are very honored to be a part of this important project. Palm Springs Arts Commission is paying for the installation. That's how strongly we feel about supporting the memorial."

It's for this beautiful outreach that we award the Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Sculpture our Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation Power of Community $1,000 grant to help them reach their goal of completing the installation by Dec. 1, World AIDS Day 2023.

"It will be a timeless, enduring landmark hovering above the ground," Jurasky says. "It is heavy but light. Lifting hope. Lifting struggles. Lifting up what is important."

Art is created to lift us up. Lift our hopes. Lift the memories of our struggles. This is one of art's truest and most pure purposes. To inspire us and to make us think. To help us remember so we may start to heal.

"We all believed a sculpture as 'public art' would be much more compelling than a wall of names." Sheffer says. "It's going to be so impressive and very impactful."

A beautiful mission of a beautiful memorial honoring beautiful lives.

Sandie Newton is an award-winning broadcast journalist who began her career in Los Angeles as cohost of the nationally syndicated show "PM Magazine." She went on to host many local and national shows like "Hollywood Insider" before becoming one of the original anchors for E! and a regular on Hallmark Channel's "Home & Family." In 2017, she moved to the desert full time, creating and hosting NBCares for more than six years, profiling over 300 valley nonprofits. She is currently the host of "Desert Chat," a new half-hour lifestyle show spotlighting all the good people, events and news in the Coachella Valley Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on KESQ and 10:30 p.m. on FOX 11.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Power of Community $1,000 grant goes to AIDS Memorial