The Jacobi Medical Center held a day of remembrance on Friday, Dec. 1 as part of World AIDS Day to commemorate those fighting and those who lost their lives to the disease.

Hospital staff and HIV patients decorated the center in red for AIDS awareness, with a homemade quilt filled messages of love and support hung at the center stage.

The event served to educate people about safe sex and the importance of health care.

Local officials attended the event to speak about their personal experiences with HIV. News 12 is told that the event also dedicated time to honor individuals in the transgender community who lost their lives to violent hate crimes.

“I think it encourages the patients to realize they're not forgotten, that they understand that we are with them,” said one hospital official. “We're here for them and we want to support them.”

Jacobi Hospital provides walk-in HIV screening and primary care treatment.