Quilts for Survivors hasn’t cut any corners in their search for a new home.
The charity’s Spruce Street South location has been home since October 2021, but they packed up and moved into their new digs on Nov. 17.
“It’s been so busy,” said Vanessa Génier, Quilts for Survivor’s founder.
The new location was set up quickly to accommodate several workshops through the Omushkego Youth Treaty Conference, which brought youth from Mushkegowuk communities to Timmins this week.
The process is kind of a blur, said Katherine Jeremiah-Génier, Génier’s daughter and the face behind the camera for many of the organization’s livestreams.
“There’s so much stuff,” she said. “I just keep wondering how we fit it all in that space.”
Their new location on Government Street South is more accessible for their volunteers and has more space for storing quilt tops and fabric.
“There were all those stairs, and it just made it hard for a lot of people,” said Génier.
The move was documented on the organization’s Facebook page, with Génier sharing her mixed feelings on the day they moved the boxes out.
“It’s not an emotion of sadness. It’s emotions of growth,” she said on the livestream. “I am overwhelmed by how many boxes we had to pack, how much stuff we have, and just the support that we have.”
While the boxes have been moved in and equipment is being set up, there are plans to celebrate the new space soon.
“I know mom wants to do a ribbon cutting,” said Jeremiah-Génier.
Quilts for Survivors started as a grassroots reaction to the discovery of unmarked graves at the Kamloops Residential School in 2021. Génier set out to make 215 quilting squares, plus one, to create 18 quilts for residential school survivors.
The organization has sent out over 3,600 quilts so far, which hundreds of volunteers have worked on nationwide.
