Quilting warms the hearts at the Ojibway Women’s Lodge
By Laura Barrios
NIPISSING FIRST NATION—An avid quilter uses her skills and resources to make and donate generous gifts in the form of 24 quilts and 36 pillowcases for the Ojibway Women’s Lodge located on Nipissing First Nation.
Donna Couchie, a Nipissing First Nation citizen, notes that each quilt can take anywhere from two weeks to three months to complete, depending on the size of the squares being used for the quilt.
“…It’s just a great big labour of love… And it makes this place homey,” said Couchie.
Couchie adds that she usually has five to six quilts in production simultaneously, in addition to her knitting projects and multiple books on the go.
Couchie spends six months at home on Jocko Point and 6 months in Florida, where she is a member of various quilting guilds, clubs, and groups. It was the quilt guild that noticed Couchie working diligently on various quilts and questioned what she was doing.
“These are going to the Ojibway Women’s centre on the Reserve,” responded Couchie, and that is when the unexpected happened. “My objective was to do 10 quilts for the 10 beds on the shelter…the guild [I sew with every Tuesday] asked if they could help.”
Between the months of October 2015 to July 2016, Couchie was able to produce 12 quilts and 36 pillow cases on her own from material that was both expended out-of-pocket and donated, and the ladies from her quilt guild provided 11 other quilts. The final quilt was provided from a woman from another group.
“I sew with the Habitat for Humanity [group] once a month…A woman from Habitat for Humanity donated a quilt that was donated to them…it was very thoughtful,” noted Couchie.
Program Supervisor at the Lodge, Julie Dalgliesh, believes that the quilts extend beyond fulfilling the need of providing a comfortable bed for the residents.
“These represent more than what Donna has done, for the women [it] is the comfort, the warmth, the hominess of the shelter…Our shelter has always been told that it’s the most beautiful and the most home-like shelter and this just adds to it; the beauty of it,” noted Dalgliesh.
Dalgliesh adds that this act of generosity is not the first of its kind from Donna.
“Donna and [husband] Donnie have been very generous. Last year Donna had contacted me about doing a donation to the centre and that’s when she actually did a number of sheets. We got flat sheets donated from the hospital when they were closing down…So Donna had put elastics on those sheets to make them fitted sheets. Now we are fully stocked,” added Dalgliesh.
Couchie’s generosity does not end with donating to the Ojibway Women’s Lodge; she has also donated bibs and burp cloths to a local children’s daycare, donated $50,000 to the North Bay Regional Health Care Centre, along with a 3-wheel motorcycle so the hospital could raffle it off to raise funds.
“We won one of the 3-wheel motorcycles,” said Couchie referring to a contest she and Donnie entered and won, “but we didn’t want it; instead of taking the money for it, we took the machine and donated it to the hospital. We like to decide where our tax money goes. We want to know where our tax dollars are going,” added Couchie.
Couchie noted that she will continue to donate in any capacity that she can because she is retired and enjoys maintaining herself busy, but mostly because she just enjoys giving back to whoever she can, however she can.
“We all have family. You never know what happens. You never know when you will be in need or when a family member will be in need. So it’s nice to give back,” stated Couchie.
The Ojibway Women’s Lodge is a secure access short term residence located on Nipissing First Nation that “provides a helping hand and encouragement to women so they can realize their full potential, in order to rebuild their lives. Supportive staff help women identify choices available to them, and respect a woman’s right to make her own decisions.”
Aside from providing a peaceful, comfortable environment where women and children can begin to plan for a better future, the Ojibway Women’s Lodge provides a wide variety of services in order to assist women during time of crisis and work towards a violence free future. The services provided include: child counseling referrals to appropriate resources, onsite childcare, safety planning, crisis support and counseling, and transitional and housing support program.