Follow up information re: donations to The Center for Traditional Textiles in Cusco

At the February meeting I presented information about the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco focusing on their mission for preserving textiles, assisting weavers, their families, and the focus on educating and caring for children.

One of the needs we discussed which affects children's health is to have donations for providing cream for their tender faces which become dried, rosy, and parched from the weather in the mountains. This is a resource unavailable in the villages and not affordable to most families. The Center visits each village regularly and identifies needs both for the weaving of textiles and health of the villagers and assists villagers to meet these needs and help with expenses.

Five of our members suggested a variety of creams that would be very good for us to send if we chose to do that. I emailed this interest to the president of the United States Board of Directors Elizabeth Doerr (there are two boards, one in the US and one in Peru) who suggested that if the guild or individuals want to help supply this cream we can send tax deductible donations to : Center for Tradiditonal Textiles, P.O. Box 1378, New Haven, Connecticut 06505. You can state what your donation is to purchase.

Board members, Chris Franquemont, the treasurer of the board; and Janess Gibson of the Textile Museum in Washington DC will take the donations with them to Peru in April. The purchases will be made in Lima when they arrive and you will receive a thank you note. The board members were very excited about this interest.

The Adopt a Cause committee will meet on February 27th . Though this cause will be discussed there are several others under consideration also. Even if the guild does not adopt this cause, we can as individuals support any of the suggested "causes" up for adoption. It would be very nice for those of us doing this individually to also say we are members of the Whidbey Island Weavers Guild where we heard about the need. That will also give the guild some recognition.

Click here for CTTC.

ADDENDUM: Just one dollar from a group of people like us..there are almost 150 members in our guild.. could give the children in the villages served by CTTC many months, perhaps a year of cream for their faces...A gigantic resource for them...a powerful message from us with just a small effort. I will be happy to take donations at the next guild meeting.

Peggy Tyson, Adopt a Cause Committee chair