Carly O’Rourke

Eager to teach students how to sew, Jessica Cardenas ’10 and Laura Ramirez ’10 approached MHS teacher Diane Nelson with the hope that she would sponsor their new fashion club. The answer was yes, and then some.

With the help of Rui Freitas ’10, they recruited members and immediately got started on their first project: make and deliver aprons to the locals of Akumal, Mexico. Nelson’s brother-in-law, who had previously visited the Hekab Be Biblioteca de Akumal library and elementary school, introduced the idea to send useful, homemade items to the disadvantaged community, which had art aprons on their wish list of supplies. 

The Hekab Be Biblioteca de Akumal library was started ten years ago by Brenda Detering, an American who lived in Akumal and saw the urgency for which literacy and learning needed to be brought to Akumal. Hekab Be means “Open Road” in the Mayan language and conveys the message that the library was created to help open new roads of learning and discovery for the area's local residents. The library, which became a U.S. non-profit organization in 2008, provides the majority of its programming for free. Hekab Be does not receive any government funding and is sustained solely by private donations.

Donations, such as the aprons created by the fashion club, play an essential role in keeping the library open. The library’s wish list of supplies included aprons for the art classes they offer to children of the community. While on vacation in Akumal during the summer of 2009, Nelson, her husband and their two children donated the aprons to an art class that was in session.

“The boys and girls ranged in age from 5 to 13, and when my husband and I entered the art classroom in the library and told them we had aprons for them, their faces lit up in big smiles and they wanted to put the aprons on right away,” Nelson recalled.

There was much commitment and effort put into the sewing of the aprons. “Some of the kids in the Fashion Club and their families are from Mexico and other Latin American countries, so it made them feel good to give something they made with their own hands,” Nelson said.

Many members of the club came in to work on the aprons even when they weren’t required to, just to get the job done in time for the trip to Mexico. The club members made a card, which they all signed, with a photo of the Mamaroneck students wearing the aprons. Nelson presented the card along with the aprons to the Akumal students.

The fashion club continues to thrive and at the request of Dee O’Brien, the director of the Semi-Royal Shakespeare Company, the students sewed costumes for “The Taming of The Shrew.” They will also be sewing penguin stuffed animals, which will be donated to a children’s pediatric ward. The club members’ abilities to touch the lives of others through their unique skills will surely be continued for years to come.