By Chris Cunningham
The Scene staff
Forest Park clubs and organizations are participating in a St. Louis Community College quilt project to support the Ferguson community – and adding their own wrinkle.
The project is called “Clothesline 4 Peace.” Students are writing messages of love and peace on squares of fabric, which will be collected from all four campuses and used to make one large quilt.
Forest Park’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter, International Club, Student Government Association and Counseling Department also are asking students to write messages on T-shirts.
“We wanted to show the community of Ferguson that we support and love them,” said Sandra Knight, Phi Theta Kappa adviser.
Organizers will display the T-shirts on the Forest Park campus during Black History Month in February and the quilt during Women’s History Month in March.
Ferguson still is reeling from events of the past two months, including the shooting of a black teenager by a white policeman, looting and protests.
Clothesline 4 Peace was inspired by The Clothesline Project, an unrelated campaign to raise awareness on violence against women. It involves hanging up T-shirts with messages of hope.
“When we figured out the other (campuses) were doing the quilt, we wanted to do more,” said Forest Park chemistry and accounting major Cheryl Addams, also Phi Theta Kappa treasurer. “We wanted to do something different and use a similar message.”
Club and organization members invited Forest Park students to write on quilt squares and T-shirts at a table set up in the cafeteria earlier this month.
Messages included “Keep up the good fight and never give up!” and “World peace for us, world peace for our children, world peace for our life. Be kind to others every day.”
One student quoted Mahatma Ghandi: “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.”
Human services major Aliyah Torry, 19, was among students who stopped by the booth. She said Clothesline 4 Peace gives people an opportunity to express different points of view and to make a positive difference.
“There are more things you can do than tear stuff up,” she said.
Business administration major Steve Borthick, 24, wrote on three T-shirts. One read, “Be peaceful. Nothing lasts forever.”
“This is like a brick on the wall,” he said. “You put a bunch of bricks together, you get a wall, and if you put four walls together, you get a house. Every little piece adds up to a bigger picture.”