Junior Anya Stephenson

What is Patchwork Promise and why did you start it?

Patchwork Promise is a school project that we started because of the IB diploma. We have a program called CAS, which stands for Community, Activity and Service. Essentially, we create a project that is for the community and also incorporates aspects of things that we enjoy doing. So for me, my first thought was something creative, something physical. I like to make things. I love sewing, I love crafting, all those sorts of things. And so me and one of my friends decided to create Patchwork Promise, which essentially is an initiative to combine our love and creativity and creating something new–creating a product, but also using recycled materials. Our goal is to create recycled tote bags out of recycled textiles that we find from the school community, anyone we can think of really, and create tote bags, which we are aiming to fill with feminine hygiene products and also just general things that we think would be important for people to have, and donate them to women’s shelters. We haven’t decided on a shelter yet, but that’s upcoming.

What do you hope to accomplish with this project?

I think our overall goal is first to create enough tote bags in order to create an impact. We want to make sure that it doesn’t just become another school project. We want it to be something that could be carried on by other students or just by the community in general, and we wanted to create something that made people feel special. So we wanted each bag to be unique and to be handmade. And because we think (people), especially women, who are in a harsh situation and need to relocate to somewhere brand new, we want them to have something to make it feel like home to them, and something that makes them feel like themselves.

What’s your background with sewing? 

I started sewing when I was about seven with my grandma and my mom, and I used to just make all kinds of things–things I would never use. And then once I got to Carmel, I learned that they had a fashion program. So I took that for two years and really refined how to sew and make it a more streamlined process, instead of just slapping things together. And I found a love for upcycling through Goodwill, because I would go and I’d find, like, the cheapest thing I could find that was like a nice fabric, and bring it home and chop it up and make something completely random and new.

What are your upcoming plans for Patchwork Promise?

Right now we are in the process of, obviously, collecting a ton of material, and we are going to be sewing those very soon. And we’re also doing kind of combined initiative with Teens Who Care in Zionsville High School, and they’re writing little notes that go in the tote bags to go to the shelters. So, yeah, we’re mostly just working on making actual products. And we’re also reaching out to name brands that we’re trying to get PR from. Because I don’t know if you’ve seen those videos where, like, the graduates send their little grad party invitations and they get PR from them, yeah? So we’re trying to do that in order to get some of the product to play in a tote bags. 

How can other students contribute to Patchwork Promise?

Obviously, our clothing drive is really important. All material that we get will get used, (also) interacting with our Instagram. Even just contributing awareness to the problem we’re trying to fix is really important, and also getting the attention of the brands we’re trying to reach could also help us reach just more people, and also just make it a bigger project. In the IB diploma, basically, if you start a CAS project and other students find it interesting, they can carry it on. They can take it and we’ve seen projects run for many years, and so we’re hoping that this becomes one of those. 

What has been your favorite part in this process?

Two things I would say: First of all, I’ve never had really a purpose to sew, and this feels like something that is not only purposeful, but also actually useful, and could be something that someone could appreciate and make them feel like at home again, almost, and like they are special and they are purposeful, and we are making something specifically for them. So I think finding a purpose in my sewing and also just communicating with a lot of different people. We’ve talked to so many people who I never thought I would talk to throughout making this, and we hopefully still will. So just seeing how many people can come together and work on something is pretty cool.

Junior Maggie Miller

What was the inspiration behind Patchwork Promise?

It was figuring out how to combine sustainability, creativity and community collaboration. We had to do a lot of brainstorming to figure out how me and my partner could combine our passions, being sustainability and creativity. So that is how the idea came to be, just figuring out and how to use those together. That is how we came up with sewing and giving back to women to their community.

What are your goals with your donations?

Our goals with their donations is to collect enough fabric to make 20 to 30 bags. We want to fill these bags with different supplies for women such as toothbrushes, hair product and all those sort of things. Our goal is support them by having creativity by kinda giving back in a positive way, and giving support through using physical items that women may not have access to on a daily basis.

How is CAS related to your studies in the IB Diploma?

CAS is related to our studies because it shows how it is important to be a whole person. Not just academic, but also service, activity and creativity oriented. So by having a CAS project we are able to expand our abilities as students. Not just academically but whole-heartedly.

What have you learned from the IB CAS Diploma?

Not to just stress over academics but develop yourself as a human and as person as well. And the importance of school or work-life balance, which it kinda of helps students develop that at a young age, so that when they can have that in the future.