Disease management company Quest Diagnostics announced on Monday that it has awarded USD100,000 in grant to the National AIDS Memorial under its volunteer workday programme in 2018.

This grant from Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest received by the National AIDS Memorial, will support the memorial's Community Volunteer Workday programme in 2018, help fund new equipment, plants, trees and shrubberies as well as support maintenance and hardscape improvements.

In addition, the company's grant will help underwrite the National AIDS Memorial World AIDS Day commemoration events on 30 November and 1 December.

Since 1991, nearly 40,000 volunteers have participated in more than 300 Community Volunteer Workdays at the National Aids Memorial, donating more than 200,000 volunteer hours and planting more than 10,000 trees, plants and shrubs. The sacred ground of the 10-acre, living memorial honors all who have confronted the tragic HIV/AIDS pandemic; those who have died, and those who have shared their struggle, kept the vigils and supported each other during their final hours.

The National AIDS Memorial, known as "the Grove," was created 25 years ago in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a place where those impacted by AIDS could both grieve and begin the process of healing. In 1996, legislation sponsored by US Representative Nancy Pelosi was signed into law by President Bill Clinton that elevated "the Grove" as this nation's sole federally-designated National AIDS Memorial.