FOCUS ON
An Update from ODC, Inc.
ability
AUGUST 2019
TRAVELING THE WORLD… ONE QUILT SQUARE AT A TIME
Karen Roach (standing above) with ODC's Monday morning Travel Club, (L to R) Aaron, Melissa, Jimmy, Megan and Dennis Page, ODC Support Specialist. For more pictures of the quilt and the other individuals that worked on putting the quilt together, go to our Facebook page - www.facebook.com/ODCInc.
When the first quilt square arrived from Saratoga Springs, New York, no one could have predicted how much discovery and excitement the Day Services “quilt square exchange” project would create. It began in February 2018 with an idea – wouldn’t joining a quilt square exchange be a great way for the Day Services Travel Club to “meet” people from all over the country and world, and learn about their communities and cultures? So the club got hooked up with a Facebook quilting group created by one of ODC’s staff members. Karen Roach, ODC Support Specialist and Travel Club coordinator, bought a book on basic quilting… and they were off! Quilt squares began arriving from other participants, most of them with letters containing a few words about the area from which they came. Thus far, individuals in over 20 states and five countries have shared their squares with the club. That first Saratoga Springs quilter wrote about the Saratoga National Forest, the Saratoga Automobile Museum and the community’s Empowering People With Disabilites To Achieve
Museum of Dance. A Gippsland, Australia quilter sent some local food, called Vegemite 10, along with her square for the club to try. Other letters and squares came in from England, Sweden, Canada, the states… club members would research those communities to learn about the landscape, landmarks, culture and customs. They would then return a letter with a quilt square of their own making, and begin the process of turning the squares they received into a beautiful quilt. “In all,” said Karen, “we received 34 quilt squares and learned about many wonderful places. We also broke five sewing needles and poked our fingers too many times to count!” The end result of this project? A lot of knowledge gained about our world and its people and about the art of quilting... and a beautiful quilt!
PLEASE NOTE: ODC and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) work together to fund and support individuals through job search and training services.