PUHI — Learning can be a part of helping. Three homeschooled students were polishing their sewing skills while creating quilts alongside members of the Kaua‘i Quilt Guild Sunday, the guild’s monthly gathering at the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. “The students
PUHI — Learning can be a part of helping.
Three homeschooled students were polishing their sewing skills while creating quilts alongside members of the Kaua‘i Quilt Guild Sunday, the guild’s monthly gathering at the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School.
“The students are learning how to make quilts while learning math,” said Kathie Saindon, who was working with students Sophia Saindon, Akaylah Lizarraga and Kaili McPartland.
But beyond the math and learning, the quilts are part of the contribution being made to the Aurora Foundation by the KQG, said Jodi Hartman, a guild member as well as a teacher at Kaua‘i High School.
“I first met Cynthia Fehring about a year ago,” said Linda Kobayashi, who along with Sylvia Pippen started the KQG about five years ago. “Cynthia was telling us about the Aurora Foundation that grew out of the Ka Loko disaster with the eventual goal of helping children in Southeast Asia.”
That prompted Kobayashi to bring the matter back to the KQG Board and in 2006, when representatives of the Aurora Foundation left Kaua‘i, KQG quilts were among the 85 quilts and blankets being taken by the group from Kaua‘i.
“This year the goal is more than a hundred quilts,” Kobayashi said. “And everything needs to be done by November.”
Kathie Saindon said last year, the goal was 65 blankets, and everyone worked hard to get the 85 blankets in less than a month.
Even while KQG members worked alongside the homeschooled students, the Aurora Foundation got a boost as Jerry Hill showed up with his pickup filled with carefully packaged fabric remnants and a sewing machine contributed by Mercedes Ching of Hanapepe for the foundation.
The Aurora Foundation is the third organization that benefits from the contributions done by the KQG members.
“When we first started, we gave quilts all the time,” Kobayashi said. “But first we made sure we gave to the Child Protective Service because it benefits children here on the island. The next group we help is the YWCA Women’s Shelter, and Aurora Foundation is the third group to join the list of quilt beneficiaries.”
In addition to its group beneficiaries, Kobayashi said they present one quilt to the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, which auctions it off during its annual craft fair during the holiday season. She said KQG also has a booth at that craft fair as well.
Lauren Tabuchi, another KQG member, added that the guild has also contributed quilts to places like the Kapiolani Children’s Hospital, the Shriner’s Hospital and the St. Francis dialysis unit.
Kobayashi, along with Hartman, is pleased that homeschooled students are learning the art of quilting.
Once the students learn the basics, it is hoped they return and teach other students how to make quilts. This ties in with one of the mission statements of the KQG where Kobayashi said the members teach other members.
Some of them attend seminars away from Kaua‘i, but when they return, they share what they learn with other members, Kobayashi said.
Judy Stambaugh, another teacher at Kaua‘i High School, was one of the first-timers at the guild gathering Sunday.
“I know how to sew, but not quilts,” said Stambaugh.
“We just get together for knowledge,” Kobayashi said. “The guild was started because there was no guild between Lihu‘e and Kapa‘a. If people want to come, all they need to do is show up at the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School cafeteria on the second Sunday of each month between 1 and 4 p.m.”
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
