BROOKINGS – Dee Shanley of Brookings took a break from her four-year commitment of teaching sewing in Belize so she can speak at Purses for a Powerful Purpose at 11:30 a.m. Friday at First Lutheran Church in Brookings.
The event is a luncheon and sale of gently used purses and other items. Tickets for the luncheon are $12 at the door; to reserve your ticket, message Mary Moeller at 690-8862.
Shanley plans to speak about her sewing students at the luncheon, which is a fundraiser to support First Lutheran’s mission team when it returns to Belize in March. The goal is $5,000.
If you can’t make the luncheon but still want to contribute, make checks out to First Lutheran Church for Belize.
“I’m anxious to tell the story because we’ve had such great support from our congregation and from community members,” Shanley said.
A decade
It all started 10 years ago, when Pastor Nyla Schoeld invited Shanley and some others to come with her on a trip she had won to the northern part of Belize.
“There were 10 of us that took that mission trip, not knowing what we would find or what we would do,” Shanley said. “We were asked to bring something along that we could teach.”
Shanley, who has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in home economics with a focus on fashion merchandising, figured she could teach sewing.
“I brought a sewing machine, and we taught about eight young girls how to sew a dress,” Shanley said.
Their guide was a pastor, who invited them to come to his church the following year.
“That started our mission team,” Shanley said. “We have continued to go as a mission team for the last 10 years, growing and expanding our service.”
They have used past proceeds from Purses for a Powerful Purpose to put in a cement floor in the sewing room, among other construction projects.
The mission team now includes not only First Lutheran Church members but community members and South Dakota State University students, who can take it as a credit course.
“This year, we’ll be going in March again with 14 SDSU students and 16 church and community members,” Shanley said.
Shanley herself will already be there, teaching her high school students.
An offer
Shanley has gone back to help teach sewing to different groups over the years, from little kids to women.
The schools now want to focus on teaching technical skills and the mission group developed an agriculture program at one of the high schools, with help from staff and students at SDSU.
“Now they are wanting to start a sewing program,” Shanley said.
She’s been teaching sewing at a high school, in a little village on the frontier of Belize near the Guatemalan border, for the past couple of years, with emphasis on how to sew sheets, pillowcases, aprons and shopping bags so students can sell them locally and make money.
Since the school has no money, other groups help out; one built the sewing room. A year ago, one of the men with that group asked her how it was going.
“I told him it was going good, except the kids don’t have money to buy fabric. In fact, one young girl brought an old sheet that had holes and was faded and she was gonna use that for a new pillowcase,” Shanley said.
“Well, how can you be proud of a new pillowcase if it already has holes in it?” she said.
Upon hearing that, the man made Shanley an offer: he’d come up with money to buy fabric for the school if she would commit to teaching sewing at the high school for the next four years.
She’s in the first year of her commitment and thinks of it as “making a deal with God.”
Volunteer, teacher
Last year, she went as a volunteer resource person to help set up the sewing program. Then she applied for a volunteer teaching permit so she could teach classes on her own this year.
“This year was the longest I’ve been there. I went at the beginning of the school year up until just two weeks ago,” she said, adding she will return at the beginning of the next semester.
She’s starting from scratch with her freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior students. All students are required to take sewing for one semester each year, so she has as many boys as girls.
“I have five students in my senior class, but then I have 16 in my freshman class and they didn’t even know what the word thread means, so it’s a challenge,” Shanley said.
“None of them have sewn. Most of them do not have a sewing machine at home. A few of them do. It’s really a totally new skill for them,” she said.
But it’s an important one that could completely change their lives.
Belize
Some people only think of Belize as a fancy resort and tourist attraction, but many people have “very poor living conditions,” Shanley said.
Until 1981, Belize was a colony of England and most people there speak English, with some speaking Spanish, Creole and other languages.
The goal of mission trips like First Lutheran’s is to help the people of Belize become more self-sufficient. Although people live simply, they were being taught computer skills “when there’s no jobs for people with computer skills,” Shanley said.
Now, it’s mandated that all of the schools have a technical component, like sewing and agriculture, Shanley said.
“Belize is more of an importing country rather than an exporting or producing country,” Shanley said.
For instance, students must wear uniforms to school, but no one in Belize makes them, she said.
“Many of them travel all the way to Guatemala to buy uniforms that have been made in Guatemala,” Shanley said.
The students wear the uniforms to school and often while they play, they sometimes rip the clothes or pop off buttons. Shanley had noticed many of her students were bringing in their spare uniforms to mend during class.
She said the only people she’s seen sewing are older people, but they will not be sewing very much longer and there’s a big opportunity for the younger ones to take up the trade.
She thinks one of her students could be a tailor or even teach sewing himself, “he’s so good at it,” she said.
Her hope for him is that he will be able to continue his schooling and get a sewing certificate, but that’s out of reach for many of them.
“Most of the kids from the school – and many schools – will not go on to college or university. Many of them will have to find a job somehow when they finish and our hope is that some of the students will be able to get a job in the fashion or sewing industry,” Shanley said.
She’s hoping if the children of Belize are taught to sew, they could become a local tailor or seamstress and lift themselves out of poverty.
“Just to have someone in one community sewing uniforms would provide a job for that one person who would then support his family by doing that and giving the children of that community a place to buy that product,” Shanley said.
There are other areas where the people can learn skills to improve their lives.
That agriculture program is doing well, with gardens, rabbit hutches and areas for chickens.
“This year, our community and church members helped to purchase a chicken plucker so the students were able – and I was able to watch them – slaughter chickens and process them with a new chicken plucker,” Shanley said.
“This year, we hope to raise enough money to help get a clean and sanitary classroom for the students to work with the chicken plucker and harvesting of the chickens,” she said.
Break the cycle
It’s all about giving the people of Belize the opportunity to help themselves and help their families, Shanley said.
“I enjoy getting to know the kids and their hopes and their dreams and what they can do with their lives,” she said.
“I have learned there is a great need there in Belize, as in many countries around the world,” Shanley said. “We can help some way to lift them up and help them with an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.”
Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.
