“We’re not a fly-by-night organization. Other people or organizations might go away when they lose interest or they decide to move on, but Patchwork is around for the long haul. Because of that, we can look long-term at the challenges that we can, and do, address because we’re not going anywhere. It’s delightful to be able to think that way.”
That’s what Jane Vickers said recently to describe some of what initially drew her to Patchwork almost 30 years ago and what continues to keep her committed to what she does here all these years later.
It’s more than simply dropping resources into our neighborhood. It’s a longstanding history of trying to recognize and amplify the value of people and places that are here and have been here as long as or longer than our 45 years.
Being around Patchwork on a daily basis, it’s humbling to see this in action.
Just before Christmas, John came to find Jane Vickers and I while we were in a meeting at Patchwork. “There’s a special guest here to see you, Jane,” he said.
We took a break from our meeting to see who this special guest might be. It turned out that it was Joe, who had participated in the Arts & Smarts Children’s Program more than 25 years ago. He had been part of a group of siblings and cousins who were here for Jane’s earliest years at Patchwork.
Now he was back in Evansville for his first visit in a long time. He had his three children with him because he wanted to show them around Patchwork, a place that had meant a lot to him as a child. Joe was amazed to discover that is Jane still heading up the children’s program and that she happened to be available to say hello.
One of the things that Patchwork’s children’s program helped Joe realize was that he loved to cook. He got to play a chef in a wacky play that I helped the kids write and act in around 1998 when I first came to Patchwork. Once, he practiced his non-fictional cooking skills by baking pull-apart bread to share with Arts & Smarts participants. His colored paper-collaged house on the life-sized gameboard we created 25 years ago in the children’s program is still marked “Eat at Joe’s.” We noted it earlier this past fall when we pulled the gameboard out to play the game with our current participants.
Joe has been working his way up as a chef in restaurants and casinos across the country. He’s looking ahead to continue to build further upon his past success.
As Jane said, it’s delightful to be able to think long-term at Patchwork. It’s a blessing to be a small part of someone’s life story and to be around long enough to see things circle back around in new ways.
Sticking Around
