I would say we have about 50 requests [de courtepointes] per day on our website, it varies between 3 to 5 requests per day. When we present a quilt to someone, the entourage of this person who also attended residential schools asks for one.
says Vanessa Génier at the head of the non-profit organization, Quilts for Survivors.
The Northern Ontario-based organization has had a year-long goal of handcrafting quilts for all residential school survivors who want them.
The demand is so great that in the past month, Vanessa Génier had to leave her job to put her heart into this project, which was born after the discovery of 215 remains of children in Kamloops.
I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what I could do […] I heard about people in my community doing walks to raise awareness, but I knew I couldn’t help in this way being a single mother of five children.
She says that the creator
gave her a gift for making quilts.
So I used my gift to make quilts and I was going to make 18 for the survivors
she said to herself in June 2021.
A year later, through the power of social media, Vanessa donated 1,632 quilts to residential school survivors. Another 900 people have applied and are waiting to receive theirs.
” The survivors are really surprised that we give them. Many ask the price. I tell them it’s free. They got caught up in everything, so to receive is not natural for them. »
Vanessa Génier grew up in the Missanabie Cree First Nation. She understands well the importance of this offering.
My community has always honored its members with blankets, whether handmade or purchased, it was a sign of respect.
A unifying project
The project initiated by Vanessa has brought together all kinds of people: a man from Timmins affected by the cause
even offered one of its apartments free of charge to transform it into the non-profit organization’s parent company.
As we enter the apartment, Vanessa shows us the bedroom filled with fabrics she received in the mail. Cash donations also arrive from all over the planet.
We had donations from Australia, the United States, Norway
she specifies on the cash donations which are used, among other things, to pay for the postage of quilts or even specialized machinery.
Vanessa does not hide it: her success would not be possible without her seamstresses, scattered all over the country.
When I started, I said to Vanessa, ‘I’ll give you two days. I’ll help you do some.’ I’m still here to do my part to help alleviate the misery
is moved the woman who has a job in a curtain store in Timmins.
Meeting Vanessa Génier on a daily basis was much more than a simple opportunity to volunteer: the testimonies of the survivors she met were a true history lesson on the Indian residential schools for her seamstresses.
” I didn’t even know that. It hurt my heart a lot. There’s no one who should go through what they went through. »
Radio-Canada also went to meet Suzanne Gauthier, owner of the Quilting Barn in Earlton, Northeastern Ontario.
One Monday morning, there were a dozen of them putting their shoulder to the wheel for this project initiated by Vanessa.
Suzanne and her team don’t expect anything in return, they do it voluntarily, out of passion. The photos of the survivors with their offering or the handwritten letters are a balm on their work.
We often see people’s testimonials so it excites us even more to work on it, every minute we can.
says Suzanne Gauthier, who specializes in finishing quilts.
Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca