By: Stephanie Turaj
Posted In: News
Photo credit: Louis DeLuca /MCT Campus
Raid the junk drawer: The Office of Community Service is looking for beads, buttons, cloth and other “junk” to send to the “Rags to Bags” program. Women in this program will turn this junk into saleable items.
Look around your dorm room, your house or a relative’s house and you may find stray buttons, beads, old clothes, old curtains and numerous other random odds-and-ends. Instead of this “junk” lying in drawers and closets, it can be put to good use.
The Office of Community Service is looking for fabric, beads, zippers, threads, etc. to be donated to a charity program called “Rags to Bags,” where the material will used by women in Nicaragua. This program is run out of a non-profit Catholic organization called the Mustard Seed Communities.
“Nag your aunt or grandmother. ‘Do you got any junk?’ Their junk can be useful,” said John Rok, Vice President for Student Affairs.
This program started around 2006 after three women from Atlanta, Georgia visited Nicaragua on a mission trip, said Rok. Rok explained that these three women, one of who is a childhood friend of Rok’s wife, wanted to help the women in this area. The three volunteers started a sewing center in order to provide training and material to women who want to be self-sufficient. The women take the material that is donated and turn them into sale-able items. This merchandize returns to the U.S. and is displayed at trunk shows in churches and community centers.
Kelly Powers, Coordinator of Community Service, likes that the merchandize is very personalized. “The story of the lady who manufactured the item is on a bio tag,” said Powers. “It puts a human face on [the program].
There will be 30 women graduating from this year’s class, and at the end of the cycle, each woman gets a sewing machine, said Rok. Rok stressed that this program is not sexist by any means, but is a great way of empowering women and supporting women who are trying to raise a family.
“I’ve been willing to continue with it-it’s a great international service trip,” said Rok. “It’s a real organization where we got real connections and know the people.”
John Rok and Powers are trying to organize a community service trip to the sewing center in Nicaragua. Several other schools, including the University of Rhode Island, have led mission trips through this program. Rok and Powers agree that this program will provide resources and support to the women in the sewing centers, but will also provide an education to students on the trip.
Rok said he was attracted to the program because it is consistent with Salve’s mission statement. He said,”the Sisters of Mercy really started to work to help women and children.” Likewise, Rags to Bags is helping needy women in Nicaragua. Nicaragua is poor, and the village where the sewing center is located is by a garbage dump. There is also an orphanage nearby the sewing center.
“It’s an international service trip to Nicaragua, but with collecting beforehand,” said Powers. “You don’t have to go on the trip- you can help with the drive and collection by bringing in bits and pieces.”
Rok and Powers are looking at planning the service trip in 2012, either in January or spring break in March. They were also considering visiting the sewing center this August, when the women graduate from their sewing classes. Rok and Powers are looking for interested students to help plan the trip.
For more information stop by the Community Service Office in Wakehurst 202, or contact Kelly Powers at kellyj.powers@salve.edu.
