glASS AlUM hElPS CRUISE lINE FIghT CANCER Fine Arts alumna Megan Mathie (CCAD 2006) has just returned from working on the Celebrity cruise ship Solstice as a glassblower for the Corning Museum of Glass. Over a three-month tour of back-to-back 12-day cruises around the Mediterranean, the hot glass team stayed busy. “On sea days we do two shows. On port days we usually do an evening show,” Mathie says. “I like the 12-day cruises because as people come back again and again, they ask smarter and smarter questions. Instead of having to explain ‘what is glass’ over and over, we can talk about some of the more sophisticated techniques and tell stories.” Although she loves the work, leaving home this summer was difficult for Mathie because both her sister and her mother are fighting breast cancer. She was thrilled to find out about a new project in Celebrity Cruises’ longstanding support of breast cancer research. The glass team refers to it as “the Pink Show.” During one show per cruise, they make everything pink, and one of the resulting pieces of glass is auctioned—with all of the profits going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Mathie also found strong support among her fellow crew members. Just one example: On her sister’s birthday, the Ringmasters, a world-champion barbershop quartet, sang happy birthday into the phone for her. “I was so fortunate to have found myself surrounded by kindness and love where I never expected it and when I needed it the most. Being able to take this job, this opportunity, turned into so much more of a gift than I thought it would be, and a big part of that is because of the people I’ve gotten to know. I know they care about Jen and Mom, and I know they care about me,” Mathie says. For more photos and lots of Mathie’s engaging writing, visit her blog at hellomeg.wordpress.com. Top: Megan Mathie (CCAD 2006) doing a glass show at the Corning Museum of Glass. Middle: The Solstice in Montenegro. Bottom: Naples, Italy, as seen from the ship’s hot glass stage. Right: One of Mathie’s early-August “Pink Show” vases. At 18 inches tall, it was the heaviest vase she had ever blown.
08 FAll 2012