When I was in elementary school in the early 1990s I remember seeing neighbors tie yellow ribbons around the trees in their front yard. My grandparents told me it was in support of our troops, who were overseas fighting in Operation Desert Storm. In high school, I started noticing red ribbons pinned to the shirts of classmates and learned that they were a symbol of AIDS awareness, dyed red because that's the color of passion. The ribbon has been a symbol of awareness ever since.
