Community service is a huge part of my incarceration. It's very important to me to give back or pay forward (depending on how you look at it) and create a positive impact on the outside community as well as my own prison community.
Through many different jobs and projects, I've earned over 50,000 community service hours. My very first project was for the Catholic missions in 1994 and that lit a fire in my heart to find more ways to serve people from here. I've crocheted blankets for preemie babies and plastic mats for homeless people. I've cared for countless animals through the Wildlife and Pawsabilities programs.
My current job is with the Stitching Post, a community service-based program where we make quilts, blankets, scarves and hats for the outside community. We also make tote bags for women being released so they don't have to carry their personal belongings in a trash bag as they reenter society.
A few years ago, former First Lady of Ohio Hope Taft visited the Ohio Reformatory for Women (ORW) and brought a different kind of community service project. This one was for the Tandana Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers support for community initiatives in Ecuador and Mali. It was founded in 2004 by her daughter, Anna, after she spent several months in rural Ecuador teaching English and forming strong bonds with the residents. Tandana’s goal is to create and nurture respectful and responsible relationships among people of different cultures.
Hope explained that through Tandana, a team of optometrists went to villages in Ecuador to give eye exams and glasses to the residents. The reactions of the people who'd been squinting or seeing blurry for years was pure joy and excitement. They could finally see clearly to plow fields, thread needles to sew clothes or study educational materials.
I was awed by the story and their overwhelming gratitude. Hope asked us to make eyeglass cases and lens wipes so the people in Ecuador could better care for their precious glasses. I was thrilled to be part of the project and couldn't wait to get started.
We received an unexpected bonus as we learned the process: the chance to use actual fabric-cutting shears. Technically, they were pinking shears that help keep fabric from fraying and they were new to us and amazing to work with. The scissors we have here are rounded tip, grade-school style, so everyone involved was excited to take a turn with the "grownup scissors."
As a result, we finished 1,000 cases and wipes in record time. Hope was pleased and Anna took them to Ecuador on her next trip.
I could really relate to the residents' struggles as I worked on this project because I wear glasses myself and know how hard it is to do anything when everything is blurry. I had to wait a long time for state-issued glasses and taking care of them is a priority. Simply being able to see clearly is a blessing, so this became personal for me.
I know the people who received our eyeglass cases and wipes have put them to good use because I've seen pictures. Lots of happy, bespectacled villagers working, studying, playing together and seeing each other smile clearly for the first time. This project was a triple-win situation: My peers and I learned to make something new and serve people; the residents were able to keep their new glasses safe and clean so they could work more efficiently and have a better life; Tandana fulfilled their goal of linking two groups of people, each of whom had skills to offer others. I felt God's presence in the midst of it all.
Hope returned to ORW recently for a social visit and brought Anna with her. We had a very long and meaningful conversation. They shared their Tandana experience from inside rural Ecuador and I shared mine from inside prison fences. We connected through our love of service to all God's people.
I'd been so humbled and honored to be part of something like this. No one cared or judged that inmates made those cases and wipes. They were just happy to have them in the first place. It reminded me of Galatians 5:13: " ... serve one another humbly in love." That's what we are called to do no matter where we are.
To find out even more about Tandana's work and volunteer opportunities, go to tandanafoundation.org.
Michele Williams is an inmate at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
