Organizations

We have the chance to be working with two amazing social organizations here in Gatineau.
The organization Entraide-Familial has agreed to give us clothes of bags which they cannot donate to their members for one reason and another.  Entraide-Familial is located in one of the poorest neighborhood in Gatineau and operates on donations exclusively.  They work with the less fortunates and provide the families in need with household supply and clothes.  The manager of the organization is Gilbert Paris and he was kind enough to give me a tour of the premises and explain to me how the organization works and how people qualify to become a member.  Gilbert was very enthusiastic about our project and it turns out that we are not only helping the homeless, but we are also helping his organization and the environment.  They have to pay to get rid of the clothes they can't use, by taking a few bags of their hands, we are doing him and the environment a favor for it won't end up in a landfill.

Through the organization Entraide-Familial, we got introduce to Le-Bras SIDA.  Le-Bras SIDA is an organization in Gatineau which works with HIV and AIDS affected people as well as with homeless people.  Their social street workers distribute warm clothes to the homeless before the winter, for in Gatineau, there aren't that many shelters and a lot of them are forced to spend the winter in the parks.  The manager is called Luc Lavigne and he was very enthusiastic about our project.  He mentioned that it would make a big difference for those people forced to sleep on a bench park.  He offered to publish an article in their newspaper once we donated the quilts.

Bella

Cut Cut Cut!

Yesterday,  I turned my living room into a seamstress workshop, took my scissors out and started snipping fabric away.  I had a full garbage bag worth of clothes to cut and half way through my hand was begging me to stop.  I kept looking at the pile of clothes that I had already cut into little squares and the size of the intact clothes pile, which seemed to not get any smaller,  and got a little discouraged by the task that seemed to be never ending.  I then realized  that for those people who live on the street, everyday their life is an uphill battle and everyday their struggle seem never ending and they must keep on going.  I thought my little sore hand was nothing compared to what they must endure sleeping on the pavement on a minus 30 degree winter night, so I kept on snipping!  I cut 360 little squares, enough to make 9 quilts and looked at my piles of little squares and  smiled.  I had achieved something today, I was one step closer to making someone's life a little more comfortable.  I didn't care about my aching hand anymore, I just felt so proud of my little piles of little squares!
Bella

Unbelievable!!

I needed to post immediately after reading through and looking at all of the beautiful work that has taken place over the past few days!! I've never felt so far away from you six & am SOOOO proud of the hours that you put in while I've been in Toronto ~ it looks as though you had a blast! Elyse I'm glad you were able to overcome your hesitations & have a motto to live by because of it! Awesome creativity on the shirts Ash! I can't wait to get back to O.Town & hear all of the fabulous stories of compassion & support shown by students at U.of O!!! So much love for everyone involved ~ SPSP & supporters alike!!

Cat

Just Let Go.

Our first day of fundraising came right after one of our lovely B.Ed profs had asked us what words we were going to try to live up to for the rest of the semester. Who knew that these words would be tested just 30 minutes after class had ended?

Setting up and preparing for this event was delightful in comparison to asking people for their donations. I stood by the table for the entire afternoon, smiling of course, but internally trying to build up the courage to ask people if they've heard about our project and finding it hard to just let go of all my apprehensions.

Knowing my own reactions to strangers asking for my donations, I had an idea of what I could expect for the day: going out of the way to avoid eye contact with these people or claiming that I didn't have any cash on me (although, this is sometimes true). What I could not anticipate was how discouraging these reactions are. For me, building up the courage to try to get people's attention was a task in and of itself. Once I began to try to let go, I figured that by I asking, people would pay attention. Well, that's not necessarily the case. As Brita wrote beautifully yesterday, we just had a taste of what those asking us for help go through everyday and I too applaud their resilience. After being ignored or overlooked a couple of times, I almost felt like throwing in the towel. But people asking for our help, whether it be on our own streets in Ottawa, or abroad have the inspiring strength to overcome this discouragement.

But, the day wasn't all discouraging! The amount of people that took the time to listen to our cause and appreciate what we were trying to achieve, whether they donated or not, was sensational. We had people not only donate money, but ask if they could donate their time or their old clothing to help our cause. What I found most amazing is the response to donating because it is something good to do; we didn't have baked goods or anything tangible that we gave after people donated, but that didn't seem to be a problem. We offered intrinsic satisfaction and I am so pleased with the positive responses we got!

And on that note of positivity, here's our wonderful group members, the masters of selling our cause on Wednesday, Courtney and Dawn.

Thanks to all who came out and took the time to listen yesterday and today. It's truly a privilege not only to be working with these fantastic students, but to have others take the time to hear us.

- Elyse 

Photos!!

Social Action Project Fundraising Day Two

"Have you had a chance to help?" That was the question we asked almost everyone today. It got a few people interested and to them we are very very thankful. 


We were in the University Centre again from 12 - 4 pm today, along with a whole bunch of job fair tables!! At first a lot of people thought we were one of the booths and we had to explain we weren't hiring but asking for donations. However, that reminds me...we could use an extra pair of hands cutting squares for the quilts and if you are interested drop us an email and we will let you know when our next 'cutting squares party' is.


Today we would like to thank the generosity of the following people. Who however modest they were at what they contributed need to understand that to us just stopping and listening to what we had to say demonstrated an incredible hope in our community. Please read the article below written by Brita on how she felt asking for money.

Thank you again!

-Lorraine L                                      -Max D                                            -George Haddad

-Stephanie Chamberlain                  -Teri Miranda                                   -Nicole Moffett

-Kevre LaRoche                             - Steve Bourdon Lafleur                   -Michel Gerin

-Dustin Saxton                                -Amena Ali                                       -C. Tounudlle

-Stace *smile*                                - Robbie (thanks for the Mentos too) -Mitra Rostami

-Tri Ho                                           - Ashley McCullaugh                        -Jeremy Gardiner

-Parissa Basat                                 -Britney Castleman                            - Steph Miksik

-M. Ramadan                                 -S. M                                                  - Marco

-Stephanie Henry                           -Alicia Lam                                        -Alyssa Iswolsky

-Sukayra M                                     -Carter V                                            - Geoff P

-Jesse Root                                     -Rebecca Hincke                               -Nicole Wells

-Meredeth Foulds                           -Tonya Godee                                    -Amanda Giarg

-David Wilson                               -Vanna C                                           -Kilt Man

-Katherine Phung                          -Ashley Nicholls                                -Jeff Santiago

-Julie Gamarnik                             -Sara Brandao                                    -Julie Gariepy

-Saad Ahmed                                -Lester                                               -Alycia Saddler

-M                                                 -Jonathan Page                                  -Aileen Duncan

-David Ecton                                -Renee Bruce                                     -Roxane Ducasse

-Ben Pearson                                -Izzar Linares                                     -Mark Elmasri

-Fauve, Arija &Kristen                 -Jean Hamilton                                   -Capt. Awesome

-Anne Marie Roy

Together these students contributed $156.44 for us to give to Drombaya on their behalf. Thank you again!        

A lesson in strength

“Could you spare some change for a good cause?” Even asking for money, for an NGO, caused me to want to melt into the ground. Between people looking away and people pretending they didn’t hear me, I felt humiliated and rejected. When someone did want to donate, I was overjoyed but that feeling of rejection was still stinging clear. This lead me to think, if I feel this way just asking people for donations to an NGO, how do homeless people asking for change feel? 

Unlike me, who can live without the money, a homeless person could be fighting to survive. That few cents may be the difference between a night of hunger and a meal. Putting myself out there was hard, but I can’t even fathom asking strangers, on the street, for money. The constant rejections, both verbal and non, would be unbearable, to someone like me. The resiliency required to do that is astounding and amazing.      

I hate to admit that I often walk by a homeless person asking for money and turn my head away. Just like the people today, I pretend that if I don’t see the person, then I am invisible to them. After witnessing this, from the other end, I can say that this is not the case. I seemed to notice the people who turned away even more. I think I noticed because I felt like they didn’t even see me as human, just a mosquito in their life. From this day forward I will always look, and give an answer, even if the answer is, “Sorry, I can’t”. People asking for money have an amazing amount of resilience and strength, and they deserve to be treated like they are, human.  Everyone has a story and I need to recognize that.   

That being said, there are people who treat everyone with dignity. Today, some amazing people listened to our spiel and for that I am grateful. It’s not even about the donation; it’s about looking passed the request for money and seeing what people are all about. I am sure there are people who show this kind of love and compassion in the world to those asking for change as well.     

Today was a personal challenge for me, and I hope tomorrow I can demonstrate some strength and resilience and ask more people to donate. We have raised $164.33 so far, and I’m sure tomorrow will be just as successful. Thank you to everyone who donated, and everyone who smiled at us, listened to us, and gave us words of encouragement. This social action project is not just about making a local and global change, it’s about making a personal change, and today I experienced that.

See you tomorrow!

Brita G

Fun Fundraising!

What an amazing day! We sat in the University Centre from 12 - 4 pm and sold the squares of the quilt blocks to our fellow students. Honestly I had no idea that it would go so well.

Recently there are a lot of people setting up booths and asking for money for various charities. In fact most of the booths were selling baked goods. I was worried when we set up ours because we had nothing for our supporters to take away (other then a genuine feeling of helping). I was thankfully wrong. Students here at the University of Ottawa willingly opened their wallets, even when as a student money sometimes is not that easy to come by. It made me so proud to be a student here and actually instilled a little hope that we truly are a community!

Today we raised $164.33 towards our goal of five hundred dollars. Which as I said earlier is amazing! So ......

Thank you to everyone who donated:

- Gwen M                                    - Jaques LaRock                                 - Love
- Ailsa Miller                               - Natalie Panczenko                            - Kristina Galinac
- Steven Boucher                        - Natasha LeDuke                               - Aileen Black
- Billie Trahan                             - John                                                 - Tyire Rottman
- Cassandra Granata                    - Guy with Brownie Fingers              - Julia *heart*
- A.  M                                        - Patrice Hull-narcisse                        - Kawlar Ghoulimi
- McLovin'                                  - Ainsley Saumure                             - H.V
- Kathryn                                    - Lady with the Purple Jacket             - Randy R
- Kyleigh                                    - Jacob Thornhill                                - Breanna M
-Terry Morin                               - Sherich Qureshi                               - Daniel L
- Lindsay Carkner                       - Deirdre Leavinater                           - Papa
- A.T                                           - Prostagma                                        - Alyssa M.
-Olexiy                                        - Davis Barone                                  - Alex Webb
-Jessica Snyder                           - Canada touque guy                          - Tyrone Lehmruhl
-Robin                                         - Joe                                                   - Steven
-Patricia                                       - Pat Wildam                                      - Mike and Hajar
- Lisa                                           - Lisa                                                  - Mallory
-Zeynep                                       - Rebecca                                           - Devon
-Holly                                         - Jeremie                                              - Amira
-Malca                                        - Steph  L.                                            - Sarah L.
- Mariah Dean                            - Aayesha Dean                                   - Maxwell Sunohara
- Allan Andre                             - Michael Goguen                                - Cody Boast
- Nicole Desnoyers                    - Amalia Savva                                    - Heather Allin
- Edward Roue                          - Patrick Herold                                   - Danielle Morrish
- Kevin Walker                          - Alex G.                                             - Sarah Jayne King
- Blessing Jimoh                        - Lily Rogers&Anna Lambert             - C. Paquette
-Angela O                                 - Peter Borony-Borowki                      - Guy with the black t-shirt
- Lisa S                                      - Michael Berbari                                - Brianne Smith

I am so grateful at the generosity of you all.

Remember to let your friends know that we are collecting money tomorrow (Feb 10, 2011) from noon till four. I hope that tomorrow will be equally successful.

Fundraising Next Wednesday and Thursday

Come and support us next Wednesday and Thursday in the student centre! You can 'buy' a quilt square for a toonie which will then go towards the micro-finance NGO Drombaya. Although we will accept any donation big or small. Buying squares guarantees that we will sew that square into a quilt that will then go to a person in need. The more you buy the more we sew!!

Remember that is Feb 9-10!

Newspaper

We got interviewed today!! By we I mean Sewing Patches - Sowing Progress. Cat and Ashley represented us and told them our story. It went very well and if you parlez Francais you can pick up a copy of La Rontonde on January 31st, 2011 around campus or checkout the website. Cat also has an interview lined up with The Fulcrum our english campus paper. Fantastic!

Cutting Party Two

We had another cutting party. After missing Courtney at the LRC by minutes, we finally were able to get our act together and go to the main library and cut blocks. It seems that meeting to cut as a group is difficult as this semester is very busy. Courtney, Brita, Elyse and I were able to get another 36 blocks cut and ready to go.

Quilt Number One

Okay, so I finished a quilt and as we had discussed as a group - I tried to cut up the scraps and stuff the blocks.  I apparently put too much in each one as the entire thing was so heavy! It would be a great way to make a mattress though.

Photo of very puffy blocks!

Finished quilt notice the lumps...

Quilt #1 finished

So I unpicked the stitching and cut the scraps even smaller so I could put less in each one. Theoretically this was a good idea but it seems that the scraps clump together making the quilt kind of lumpy. Warm but lumpy. 

Cutting Party!!

At 4pm our group, minus a few late comers, met int the Learning Resource Centre to cut fabric. Bella and Courtney had picked up the fabric from le bras- SIDA, sorted through it all and brought 4 large and heavy boxes to meet us. We cut blocks and cut blocks and cut some more.

Ashley and Cat practised sewing and completed one row of six blocks. After seeing the length in an actual sample we all decided to change the dimensions of the quilt. We also took into account that people outside would want to wrap the quilt around them, and so the width would have to be longer. Our new dimension for the quilts are: 6 blocks x 6 blocks. Which means 36 blocks for each person to take home, and sewing.

Again we cut more blocks.

The highlight of the evening was Courtney and Bella's matching outfits that they modelled for us. I will hunt down a picture for the blog here. What a productive evening!

Our Logo

Thank you Courtney!

A Flurry of Action!

So this is amazing! I have never worked on a project that has come together so easily. I say easily but really it has been because of a lot of hard work on the part of all of my group mates. Brita and I met after class on Friday and hammered out a tentative schedule and tasks that needed to be done. This included:

• get sewing machines for everyone involved - next friday
• organize advertising and printing of advertising materials
• organize clothing donation bins and collection
• organize booth set up to collect funds
• talk to Drombaya about goals and find out more information
• make t-shirts that we can all wear to promote our cause
• create materials to be used at fundraising booth

We also had a name: Sewing Patches - Sowing Progress. Later that evening, Brita sent over a rough copy of the proposal and soon it worked it's way through the group for editing. I contacted many people on sites like Kijiji and Craigslist to possible sell their sewing machine for a lower amount. Group members asked around posted on Facebook, and we did it. Before the following class everyone had a sewing machine.

Bella had found an organization that was willing to donate used clothing that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Courtney had a poster created. Cat had contacted newspapers about running our story. Elyse had talked to people about setting up our booths. Ashley had worked magic and somehow got us printing.

The decided action was to pick up fabric on Monday and have a cutting party. Where everyone would learn to use their new sewing machines. That's right people would be sewing for the first time!!

Drombaya

Tonight, we had a fantastic meeting with Bonnie Burlton about her micro-finance NGO called Drombaya. Check out the amazing work that she and her partner are doing in Africa. She told us numerous stories like the one below.

We are so happy to help support a former Bed student who is really taking action!

A Proposal

Mission - to bring together local and global initiatives by providing a local youth shelter with handmade quilts while fundraising for a global NGO.

Description and rationale  

Our social action project, Sewing Patches - Sowing Progress, is aimed at tying together the local and global communities.  We will be creating 35 quilts, out of donated old clothing, for a youth shelter as a way to give back to our local community. Each quilt block will be sold in order to fundraise for a grassroots micro-finance NGO based out of sub-Saharan Africa, as a way of giving back to our global community. 

In this project we are also seeking to minimize the amount of solid waste being sent to landfills in Canada, by reusing items of clothing that are considered to be trash by their current owners, instead of purchasing new fabric. In 2002, Canadian households produced 12 million tonnes of residential solid waste, of which 18 percent was labelled other which, included old clothing (Stats Canada, 2005). That means approximately 2 160 000 tonnes, or roughly 196 364 empty school buses, of solid waste including used clothing is thrown out each year, and sadly this figure is on the rise. This social action project gives us the opportunity to basically turn trash into cash for global aid, and raise some awareness about the merits of recycling clothing. 

We selected this project based on the previous efforts of, a few of the group members when they recycled old clothing into mittens for homeless persons within Ottawa. They had found that cutting the patterns of the mittens was very time consuming and lowered the amount of mittens that they could make. Also, while making mittens different hand sizes had to be accounted for when sewing the mittens. Quilts were selected because the pattern for the quilt could be very simple to cut out, allowing for more time spent sewing. We also thought that quilts are useful, comforting, and depending on use can last for many years and therefore avoid landfills for many years. 

A micro-finance organization was selected because we feel it empowers the local community to become active participants in determining their own future.  Also, the money given to micro-finance organizations is constantly reused, after it is repaid. So, a small amount of money given can potentially still have a great impact. The grassroots organization Drombaya was selected as it is based in Ottawa, and co-founded by a University of Ottawa Faculty of Education graduate. Drombaya, while small, partners with civil society organizations (CSOs) to ensure that micro-finance is available for those who need it. By raising money for Drombaya, along with creating quilts, our group will create awareness about micro-finance and the importance it holds in helping those in extreme poverty, while allowing them to maintain their freedoms and choose their livelihoods. 

Social Action project objectives

• Raise a minimum of $500 for the micro-finance NGO, Drombaya.
• Create awareness within the University of Ottawa campus community about micro-finance.
• Donate 35 quilts to an organization with the need for quilts, either a homeless shelter or retirement home.
• Raise awareness about how clothing can be reused.  

List of deliverables for midterm appraisal

• All clothing donations will be collected,
• Advertising about the action project and NGO will be created and distributed,
• Organization where quilts will be donated will be selected,
• All fabric will be cut,
• The group will learn to sew, or improve their sewing skills. 
• ½ of the quilts will be completed.

List of deliverables for final report

• Minimum of $500 will be raised for Drombaya,
• Money will have been donated to Drombaya,
• Quilts will have been donated to a local organization,
• Informational poster about the social action project will be completed.

Tentative schedule

January 7, 2011 – First planning meeting
January 10, 2011 – Fabric donation collection, supply compiling
January 14, 2011 – Donation bin approval completed and creating/implementation of advertising materials completed, sewing machines collected for all group members
January 19, 2011 – Fundraising booths approval done, and in action
Feb. 4, 2011 – Last day for donation bin clothing collection
Feb. 4, 2011 – Organization for quilt donation selected and has been met with, in person.
Feb. 28, 2011 – Last day for monetary donations
March 7, 2011 – Quilts are completely sewn and completed
March 11, 2011 – Money is donated to Drombaya.

Pink Floyd and Education

Yesterday, in class we were asked, "what is the purpose of education/schooling?" We then watched the music video Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd. When the video first came on many students in my lecture hall started singing along, and if they weren't I am almost positive that they knew the words and if not had heard it once before. The singing stopped as I believe my classmates like myself were examining the images that the video portrays. It surprised me how differently I thought of this video when I was asked to re-examine it from the perspective of education. It seems like up until that point I hadn't really given it much thought, I am sad to say.

The next video we watched was of Sir Ken Robinson - 'Changing Education Paradigms'. I can't begin to summarize how much I loved this video and agree with it. However, it can be demoralizing as a pre service teacher heading into that same system. What we need to do is question how we will teach within that system. What room do we have to maneuver?

Today we were asked to form a group and developed a social action project for our community service learning component of the course. We did. That group consisted of Bella Flammia, Courtney Stiles, Ashley Fisher, Brita Goldie, Cat Costa, Elyse Snell and myself - Dawn Collins. Based on an earlier project that a few of us worked on we developed an idea. Stay tuned for more details....