Tyler Sweatman
Tyler Sweatman, event director of CURE’s Dallas AIDS Memorial Quilt display, announced that the event has been postponed. Last week, he said, Pepsi pulled out as the event’s lead sponsor.
The event was to be held at the Dallas Convention Center the last weekend in September. It would have been the largest display of the Quilt in about 15 years.
The Collin County-based CURE wrote on its website:
After much discussion and careful evaluation the C.U.R.E. Board of Directors has decided to suspend preparation for C.U.R.E. 2011.
2011 has been a remarkable year with much attention and many initiatives presented to mark and commemorate 30 years of AIDS. The year brought focus to the strides taken in treatment and medications for AIDS. 2011 reminded us of the 40 million people still living with HIV and AIDS but also, and of equal importance, the still increasing numbers of new infections.
“Pepsi was the lead cash sponsor and they pulled out at the 11th hour,” Sweatman said.
He said they’re looking for another company to sponsor the event and they hope it will happen in 2012. Sweatman is not on the board of CURE so he said he can’t speak for the group.
“But they’re regrouping right now,” he said.
He said he expects CURE to instead do something to mark World AIDS Day again this year. In each of the last few years, CURE has had a Quilt display in a storefront in downtown Plano and at various corporations in the city.
