Background on Peace Builder Club recognition and Committee: Jim Applegate, Chair of our Club's Peace Builder Committee (second from right in image below), spoke about our Peace Builders Committee and the Social Justice Sewing Academy at our July 8 Club Meeting. At that meeting, District Governor Dan O'Brien (second from left) and past District Governor, Bill Durall (far right), presented then President Megan Reynolds and Jim Applegate with a Rotary International Certificate recognizing our Club as a Rotary International Peace Builder Club (image below). We are very proud to be recognized for our peace-building efforts.
Our Club's Peace Builders Committee secured grants from the Healing Racism in Illinois Program (https://fieldfoundation.org/healingillinois) and the Rotary Literacy Grant program to create a partnership with the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) (www.sjsacademy.org) and The Outlet (www.theoutletillinois.org) supporting a Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) for young men and boys (as well as some of their parents, grandparents, and young girls) served by The Outlet. The Outlet largely serves youth in families without present fathers.
For three nights about 20-25 participants (a) talked about what it means to be a young male in Springfield and America (b) worked with SJSA staff and experienced quilters to translate the ideas and emotions sparked by those discussions into visual images imprinted onto quilt squares and (c) created artist statements expressing what their squares meant to them (images above and on left provided by The Outlet). Each of the young men were given a copy of the book “Stitching Stolen Lives” authored by one of our SJSA partners (image below provided by The Outlet) and a picture of themselves with their square.
The insights and high level of engagement of participants was amazing to hear and see. One retired veteran teacher/quilter called it “one of the most meaningful things I have ever done.” Everyone involved from SJSA organizers to Outlet staff, to Rotary and quilter volunteers came away in awe of the young men’s work as well as energized and motivated to make sure their message was heard far and wide to spark change.
These squares have been transformed into a beautiful full-sized quilt by SJSA. With support from a second Club Grant from Rotary District 6460, the Peace Builders Committee is organizing community events where the quilt will be displayed, and recordings of the young men talking about their work will be presented to leaders and citizens across Springfield. The goal of these events is to spark community conversations about what Springfield needs to do to address the issues raised by these young men and their quilt and build greater peace in our community.
The quilt is on display in the Juneteenth Noir V: Resilience exhibition at the Illinois State Museum from June 13-Septembers 2. The Peace Committee was thrilled that the two young curators for the Noir V: Resilience exhibition, Austin Wells and Elijah Miller (image below), requested to include the quilt in their exhibition (second image below). Jim Applegate, Bonnie Styles, and Rod and Rosemary Buffington were honored to attend the Noir V: Resilience opening reception at the Illinois State Museum on June 13. The exhibition is open to the public during regular Illinois State Museum hours, and we encourage all our members to check it out and see the quilt. An article by Karen Witter on this project and the exhibition of the quilt was published in the June 12, 2025 issue of the Illinois Times.
The beautiful quilt created through this partnernship will also be loaned for displays at national quilting expositions and museums along with the estimated 45 other community quilts created to date by SJSA to give voice to those who are often not heard by their communities and country.