A New Piece for my Quilt

I always like to think about my life as a big quilt that I am always adding new pieces to. For example, the most important patches on my quilt are my core values: perseverance, creativity, community. I think about my life this way because, in March 2020, I began quilting, and it has quickly become a big part of me and my life.

I have combined this creative passion with my desire to give back in the form of ReTextile, a non-profit organization that I started and currently run. ReTextile uses fabric that was going to be thrown away to make quilts to provide comfort to survivors of human trafficking living in North Texas shelters.

Recently, I have added a new piece to my quilt: ISM, or Independent Study Mentorship. ISM allows students to study and gain real-world experience in a topic of their choice. Because I want to expand ReTextile to serve more shelters in and beyond North Texas, I am studying non-profit entrepreneurship.

Even though we have not begun to dig deep into our area of study, I have already gained so much from being in ISM. When we gave introductory speeches to the class, I got to practice my public speaking skills and share ReTextile with my peers for the first time. I’ve been a little shy about talking about ReTextile, because of that nagging question: “What if ReTextile doesn’t work out?” But a few of my peers are donating to ReTextile, and have been so supportive of my passion project. It has given me the confidence to share ReTextile with even more people.

As a result of this experience, I am more interested than ever in how young non-profits build a volunteer and donor base. While I have had some modest success in doing so, if I want to expand ReTextile, my volunteer and donor base also needs to have to expand. I am going to be researching how to do that and create a plan for ReTextile this coming week.

See you next week,

Ashley