December 1st is World AIDS Day, a day to unite in the fight to end the HIV epidemic, support people living with HIV, and honor those who have lost their life.

One of the most most famous AIDS-related icons is the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Conceived in 1985 by Cleave Jones and then co-founded as the NAMES Project with Mike Smith in 1987, the quilt has blossomed into a 48,000 panel memorial. Smith joins me to talk about the how the quilt began, the struggle to maintain a memorial made of spangles and cloth, and how the busiest quilt in American history went virtual.

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Ren Morrill (Host) - Ren is The Three Letter Podcast’s creator and host. He is a Maine native with a life long passion for HIV. He works for Frannie Peabody Center as the prevention program coordinator. He also serves as the co-chair of Pride Portland’s HIV Advisory Board.

Mike Smith- Today is World AIDS day and my guest is Mike Smith. Mike is the co-founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and served as managing director there from 1987 to 1989. He returned in 1996 to produce the last full-scale display of the Quilt in Washington DC that year. Mike was executive director of the LGBT Community Center of Colorado from 1997 to 2001 and then, from 2002 to 2015, he led AIDS Emergency Fund & Breast Cancer Emergency Fund (AEF & BCEF), agencies that annually help more than 3,000 people disabled by HIV/AIDS or breast cancer pay their bills while too sick to work. He has recently rejoined the Quilt team as a consultant to the National AIDS Memorial, the new stewards of the Quilt.

Mike’s undergraduate degree is from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He received his MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.


•NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
•Pride Portland’s HIV Advisory Board Virtual Hosting Of 8 Panels