Lazy Girl Joan, who is largely responsible for the Bookmark Challenge, mentioned the Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy program in her Lazy Yahoo! group.

Lazy member, Dana, from Sevierville, TN, responded with this story:

The Reading for Literacy campaign you describe is wonderful.

In one of my earlier lives I was a teacher. Then we moved to a very rural area, where for years the “schoolin'” people got was very substandard.

Last fall, I was asked to help a 50-yr-old woman learn to read. She had left school in the 5th grade and could not read a street sign, a menu, labels in the supermarket or on her medicine. One day she bragged that for the first time she could read directions on a microwave dinner. Another day she was excited when she could “read the trucks” on the highway.

When we first met, I asked her, “Why now? Why do you want to do this?”

Her eyes filled with tears and she said, “I just want to read a book”.

How could anyone say no?

So, we began. We worked on the alphabet, phonics, all the basics. She has now read eight+ books. We just finished “A Farewell to Arms”, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and others.

Her first book was “The Wizard of Oz,” and to make the characters tangible for her, I made a bookmark with Betty Russell’s design of the Scarecrow. My friend said he was her favorite character since he, like she, had no brain. I explained that he only THOUGHT he didn’t and we talked about all the ways he showed his intelligence, and somehow the bookmark came to symbolize that for her.

For her second book, I made a book tote for her and embroidered it with “My Books” and “classy lady” reading designs. She will soon need a bigger one to hold all her books.

I’m starting to think these Lazy quilters aren’t so lazy.

Thanks to Joan and Dana for sharing.

Do you have a Stitching for Literacy story? We want to hear it!