Ok, so I got dispatched to the KJCC in Topeka today to do a training. As it's name implies... it's a jail for juvies. The walk through the halls of the high security side of the facility was a bit intimidating, but when I got to the work study building I was welcomed into a program with a hard working bunch of kids. The work study program purchased a used Melco Amaya XT machine to replace a 3 head Brother machine for use in the textiles program.
Of course we set to work on making sure that the facilitators and students alike got familiar with their new embroidery machine - which actually was easy work for me! The kids were drawn to the ease of opening designs in AMAYA OS and selecting colors to stitch ~ their enthusiasm was infectious. They were familiar with the ins and outs of embroidery, so moving from the Brother to the AMAYA was like upgrading from DOS to Windows!
As we sat and waited for the designs to stitch I had the opportunity to see the other things that were going on in the program. These kids are learning how to be creative and make stadium seats, draw string back packs, regular back packs, duffle bags, computer bags, eReader cases and more. As a non-sewer myself I made a comment to one of the boys that I was working with that I was impressed with a bag that another student was making. He replied with "yah, but after the first couple it gets boring" however, the young man working on the bag said "no, it never get's boring because you just need to keep coming up with new ideas for the bags". This is so true - the young man had designed many bags and his pride in them showed through.
Now, these kids are in juvie for a reason (I don't know the reason and the reason is really insignificant to me) but they are using their time in the correctional facility to learn a skill, which I admire. They are making anywhere from $.25 to $1.25 per hour, so they may not come away with a lot of money, but I hope that they come away with the skill and pride to make something of themselves one day.
Who knew embroidery could be so inspiring?
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