BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Community members gathered Monday night for a candlelight vigil honoring those who have lost their lives to HIV and AIDS as part of World AIDS Day observance in Bakersfield.

The Bakersfield's AIDS Project invited the community to gather in remembrance and solidarity, with many attendees holding pictures of loved ones lost to the disease.

Following a commemoration ceremony, participants marched from the Liberty Bell to the Arts Council of Kern, where the exhibit of the National AIDS Quilt hangs.

"It is an amazing opportunity to hear the voices of loved ones lost to AIDS. Each of them was painstakingly sewn by friends and family members, partners, schoolmates," Audrey Chavez said.

Chavez, the founder of Bakersfield's AIDS Project, started the non-profit after

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