By Tom Ganser
Correspondent
The second year of a professional athlete’s successful first year is usually scrutinized with the expectation that early successes aren’t likely to continue.
“We Care,” a Whitewater service project that started a year ago, not only is continuing its early success during Year Two, but is on a roll and gaining momentum. There’s not doubt that We Care has avoided the “sophomore jinx.”
Terrie Parenteau started We Care in response to UW-Whitewater students looking for ways to give back to the community. Many of the existing service programs didn’t fit easily into their busy schedules. They needed something with a very flexible “come when you can” schedule. Working in the Biology Department at UWW gave Parenteau a chance to explore with students what kinds of things they’d be interested in and a schedule that might work best.
Currently, We Care volunteers meet at the First United Methodist Church, located at 145 S. Prairie St. in Whitewater, two or three Sundays a month from 3 to 6 p.m.
Parenteau stressed that Project Care isn’t just for UWW students, but for any adults from the community who would like to bring a little sunshine into the lives of others.
Volunteers show up whenever they can and everything they need for a project is provided. It’s also possible to pick up the supplies needed for a project, work on it at home, and then bring back the completed project.
We Care’s first major venture was the “100 Dress Project.” Completed in memory of Marcia Beckman, 100 dresses for young girls were created using sewing machines, sewing supplies and “bags upon bags of wonderful fabric” that were donated as part of Beckman’s estate.
The colorful dresses – guaranteed to generate miles of smiles for the girls wearing them – were donated to the Whitewater Clothes Closet and distributed to residents of the community in about two hours in April of 2011.
“We wanted to keep what we do in the community as much as possible,” Parenteau said. “It’s a nice symbiotic relationship between the city and community of Whitewater, and people at the university.”
Most of a second and even larger collection of 158 dresses and 10 t-shirt/skirt outfits was distributed at the Whitewater Clothes Closet on Aug. 18 – just in time for the start of school.
Experience in sewing is not required at all.
“Most of the We Care crew didn’t know how to sew when they came,” Parenteau said. It’s not required and they don’t have to work on a project if they are not comfortable.”
Quite to the contrary, Parenteau said she’s had fun teaching the adventurous how to cut out a quilt or a dress and how to put each item together.
“If someone makes a mistake cutting a dress pattern, we turn the mistake into a quilt piece. It they make a mistake cutting a quilt square, we turn it into a crazy quilt. It’s a win/win situation,” she said.
The UWW students and community members who are the heart of We Care have also made jewelry. In addition, they have made quilts for the Linus Project that provides new, handmade blankets, afghans, and quilts for the security, warmth, and comfort of children who are seriously ill or traumatized.
We Care volunteers have also created scrapbooks for photographs and other treasures for the families of (Fairhaven) Hearthstone residents for their loved ones in early stages of Alzheimer’s or dementia.
Former team UWW’s Women’s Rugby captain Sara Holzman from New Berlin and a May 2012 graduate decided to give We Care a try as a way for team members to meet UWW’s community service requirement for club sports.
Vernelle Trueh, from Milwaukee, is a member of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority. A dedicated scrapbooker, Trueh joined We Care this summer and is encouraging her sorority sisters to come along.
Another UWW student, Whitney Alsteen from Manitowoc can be considered a founding member who attended the first meeting and has hardly missed one since then.
A recent gathering of volunteers included three members of the UWW Women’s Rugby Team.
Sarah Lidicker, a Human Resources Management major from Belgium, who plays second row for the team, said “We Care is perfect because it’s come and go, and you do whatever you want here. You can make dresses. You can make a quilt. You can make scrapbook pages. You can make jewelry. So whatever you’re good at and put it to use for other people.”
What keeps Lidicker interested?
“I keep coming back because I like to do good things,” she said.
Zartavia Howard, a Graphics Design major from Milwaukee and a feisty hooker for the Women’s Rugby Team, comes to put her talents in design and jewelry making to good use.
“I do like to help people,” Howard said, “so this is really a good experience. I get to do something ‘hands-on,’ anonymously, without them knowing I’m doing it.”
Emma Kaptchen plays fullback and wing on the rugby team and a is journalism major from Lafayette, Colo. Kaptchen admits to the influence of her mom in getting involved with We Care projects.
“My mom is a semi-crafty person,” Kaptchen said with a little laugh. “She cross-stitched and sewed things. We Care is much bigger and different. And I love doing it. You get to bond with everyone. It’s so fun. I’m making a quilt right now.”
Terre Golembiewski, a technician in the UWW Biology Department, said with a smile, “I’m the older person and I do not play rugby.” Although she “grew up with sewing” Golembiewski has only recently started sewing.
“The ‘dresses’ part of We Care really clicked with me,” she said, adding proudly that she’s already created 18 dresses.
Amber Ball, an Early Childhood Education major from Beloit, was at the We Care gathering for the first time on the recommendation of a good friend.
Ball said she wanted to help out in scrapbooking and sewing, things she learned about in a high school home economics course, “but after that, I never really got into it.”
Fall projects for We Care include creating tied-fabric Christmas wreaths and fanciful designer Christmas stockings, in addition to ongoing items.
The We Care fall schedule at First United Methodist Church includes Sept. 16 and 23; Oct. 7, 14 and 28; Nov. 4, 11 and 18, and Dec. 2 and 9.
According to Parenteau, there are two requirements to joining We Care: “A caring heart and willing hands.”
Anyone interested in learning more about becoming a part of We Care or donating supplies for projects is encouraged to come to one of the gatherings at First United Methodist Church or to call the church office at (262) 473-2131.
