Do you remember the thrill of sitting in to a sewing machine for the very first time, imagining your potential? We suspect that the excitement still exists every time you sit down at your machine to create. We’ve just heard about a fantastic initiative to help put sewing machines for elementary students into remote Labrador community schools so that they too can enjoy realizing their creative dreams and want to share it with you.
Until December 31, 2020, the Sew & Sew initiative, created by Colleen Gray of I Love First Peoples in partnership with the Art For Aid Project, will provide Indigenous educators with quality sewing supplies, including safe sewing machines for children, so that they can teach the craft through traditional projects in a school setting. Their goal is to raise enough funds for 30 machines. If they succeed, they will expand the program into other communities.
Sew & Sew is part Colleen’s Art For Aid Project which supports First Nations, Inuit and Metis art education programs through access to quality art supplies, awareness and fundraising efforts so as to connect Indigenous youth to art and knowledge of their culture. Along with the machines, Art for Aid will supply material and sewing notions, thread, needles, and machine oil, as well as cleaning and repair tools.
Last fall, Art for Aid collected nine boxes of supplies, including three sewing machines, for Mushuau Innu Natuashish School in Newfoundland – everything they need to run a sewing program. Read about her wonderful visit to the school and the lasting impression that the children left her with.
Maybe you and a few friends, or your guild, would like to chip in and help them reach this year’s goal? Each machine costs $160. Four friends at $40 each and voilà – it’s done! If you’re interested, it’s easy to donate online. It’s a great way to support art education and quality learning tools for students in remote communities.
