Our past project has given us the opportunity to PAY IT FORWARD.. It may not be much, but we will do what we can to make a difference in a Graduates life..
Our city of New York has been affected by COVID-19 in a way that has allowed us to reflect on everything that needed to change going forward.
Healthcare and how it is managed was not the only topic that imploded in this ‘New Normal‘, Education has been hard hit. How we transfer knowledge was poked by Technology, almost tickled decades back and we knew, those in education, that it was a matter of time, before we had to submit to that fact, join it because you can’t beat it.
In the matter of days, teachers took to the screen, the knowledge they were imparting to their students face to face.. and so remote learning started.. and it looks like it might stay with us in the Fall.
Teachers in the NYC Department of Education will cross that bridge when they get there and do what they can to make sure students do not fall behind yet what about those that are leaving us and moving forward to college? Now that many colleges are taking their instruction to online learning, where does that leave the graduates that are committing to Fashion Design as their major? How is Fashion Design as a skill and craft be taught when you don’t have the proper tools and equipment?
Schools like Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons School of Design and Pratt all have labs where students that DO NOT have the needed equipment like Sewing Machines can go and use them.. but how will that work with remote learning?
This is up to those schools to figure out.. in the meantime we want to look out for our own and make it possible for 3 graduating seniors that have been accepted and will attend a college or university with FASHION DESIGN as their major in the fall, to have their own Sewing Machine.
As inexpensive as a home machine may seem, at this time, when many parents are faced with unemployment, joblessness, food insecurities, a sewing machine is a luxury.
Imagine knowing your child has been accepted to a college that will further their dream of becoming a fashion designer yet dimmed by knowing you can’t provide with an essential tool that can ensure their success?
My grandmother was so proud when I was accepted into the High School of Fashion Industries because she never finished elementary school herself and because she too, had a love affair with sewing.. so to see her first granddaughter fall in love with the same, was probably more than she could hope for..
Today that same sewing machine she purchased with her welfare check 33 years ago sits in my closet.. an industrial sewing machine!
It has never left my side, throughout all the moves, the many apartments, except for the 5 years I lived in Florence, when it lived in a storage space, it strengthened my skills, it created beautiful garments, my many assignments at FIT, alteration after alteration of many family and loved ones garments, it served as therapy when I needed to breathe and channel my frustrations into something beautiful, this is my sewing machine…
And as this is written, I personally realize what a sewing machine can really mean for a graduate..
Please help us make that happen for more than three..
Application for Award are LIVE