Always in our Hearts image - Making an impact!

A note from Dr. Brass School - Read below:

Hello, my name is Maggie Taylor and I am the library technician at Dr. Brass School in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. I wanted to say how wonderful your "Always in our Hearts" artwork - fabric panel is. I am a quilter and love to make quilts, wall hangings etc. In our school (K-8) I work closely with our Indigenous Community Worker, Melissa Fleury, and between us, we came up with an idea for our students to learn sewing skills and using a sewing machine. Mrs. Fleury and I found orange and black fabrics that we felt would enhance our project. When I saw your fabric/material panel, I immediately brought it to school to show Melissa. We agreed that this needed to be apart of our school project with the children.

Each student was able to choose a square of orange or black fabric to add to our project. We visited the classrooms to speak to the students about the impact of residential schools and it's lasting effects on the Indigenous people, and the awareness efforts of Orange Shirt Day. There was enough squares to create two quilts, one for our main hallway in the school and the other for our lower-wing hallway.

We were honored to have Tribal Chief Isabel O'Soup, of Yorkton Tribal Council, attend our school to speak about the impact of Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day, where we (The Sewing Club students, Mrs. Fleury and myself) presented the two quilts to our principle, Noel Budz, for display at our school.

Recently, Quintin Robertson, Director of Good Spirit School Division, was able to see the quilts on display at our school and immediately requested that another quilt be created by The Sewing Club for the Division office. This certainly was an honor that we didn't expect! I have already ordered another set of the "Always in our Hearts" fabric panels and expect to have the quilt ready for the Division office before the end of the school year.

Sorry for the long email, but I really wanted to convey how meaningful your artwork has been for us. Thanks again for creating such a lovely piece of artwork.