UPS and FedEx drivers are spending a lot of time at Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady, thanks to you, good people.
The first wave of items from our successful Warmth In Winter wish list is arriving, as are boxes of found metal objects, beads, old jewelry, and cartons of books from the Alaska Book Angel, Aly Culhane.
We are doing a lot of good at Bishop Gibbons in many different ways.
Please keep sending things – old jewelry, beads, paintbrushes, art supplies and paint, discarded metal objects, feathers, and old fabrics.
Sue’s miraculous art projects are hungry and very popular, she can make great use of so many things: Sue Silverstein, 2600 Albany St., Schenectady, N.Y. 12304.
The students banded together to help unpack the packages and store them. Sue has struck again; she never misses.
The Winter Warmth wish list items – clothes, jackets, socks and shoes and boots, toiletries, and healthy snacks for kids who don’t get breakfast are arriving and will all be stored in an empty classroom so people in need can come and choose what they want.
Social workers have stepped in to notify the refugee and otherwise needy families that the clothes are here and they can come and pick up what they need.
Thanks so much.
We are helping Bishop Gibbons and the students there on several fronts.
Old Jewelry is pouring into the art program, so the students can now come anytime they want and make jewelry for themselves or their family members. English Department head Trishia White is looking for new bookcases to stock the books she receives.
(Rosemary (she didn’t offer her last name, sent this fantastic package of unwanted metal leaves, absolutely perfect for Sue’s booming and expanding art program. This will be used to make wind chimes and a dozen other projects Sue will think of. Thanks, Rosemary. Sue always looks for abandoned jewelry, forgotten metal objects, and beads.)
English Teacher Trish White has begun a new program in the English Department to let the students sort through the boxes coming from Alaska and tell her which books they are interested in.
They can read the books they want, and Trish is making a note of what each student likes for future reading reference. Alys has vitalized the school library. Kids are lining up to choose and read the new books.
She said reading is in again.
The excellent Alys, the founder of the Bright Lights Project, which saves recycled and abandoned books and gets them to people who need them, is also supplying Sue Silverstein with one of the best art book collections any high school ever had.
She’s sent thousands of dollars worth of contemporary books aimed at young people and serious readers..
Alys also now is sending books to several of the top readers at the Mansion Assisted Care Facility. She is a Saint.
She joins Sue Silverstein and Tricia White in the Army Of Good Hall of Angels. FedEx, UPS, and USPS drivers are mainly on a first-name basis with the school’s main office.
Sue’s current project of the week is making Dream Catchers, a Native American symbol for oneness, often believe in bringing good dreams to people who have them.
If anybody out there has any feathers – or abandoned jewelry or lost metal objects or brushes and paints – please send them to Sue Silverstein, Bishop Maginn High School, 2600 Albany Street, Schenectady, N.Y., 12304.
The first Dream Catcher. The students love to make Dream Catchers; they are controversial in the Native American world.
From a Native-American website: “..., a dream catcher can be seen as a symbol of unity between individuals and tribes. Many natives see them as a connection to their culture and a common sense of identity. When a person doesn’t understand or respect the meaning of a cultural symbol, using it becomes offensive and belittles its cultural importance.”
Knowing Sue, she will discuss this and make it clear.
Thanks for all of your support. Don’t let anyone tell you that there are not good people in the world eager to help people in need.
I am part Native American, and I just wanted to let you know that many of us do not like it when non-Native Americans create dream catchers. It’s co-opting our culture and making it part of something that it is not. It’s great that Sue wants to create art with her kids, but it’s too bad she’s doing it at the expense of genuine Native American art. Don’t bother to respond huffily and say how wrong I am to feel this way. You’re not in a position to do that, since you’re also outside of our culture.
Minna, thanks for being honest and open with me. Sue is extremely sensitive to her students, who are almost all minorities and refugees. They love doing this work, and they say the Dream Catchers are very comforting for them at night. I don’t know if they understand the cultural implications. Sue is the very last person on earth who would knowingly offend anyone.
It’s not really up to me to tell her or the school what or how to teach; I’m not on the staff, but I will share this message with her. It is perfectly appropriate for you to send it. I’m not thinking I’m in your culture or seeking that, nor do I have a Dream Catcher in my home or anywhere else.
And I’m not the one getting huffy here.
Nothing about your message is irritating or offensive to me except one thing: You’re assuming you know how I would react and ridiculing it. That is insensitive, just in case you don’t know. And I don’t “huff,” a hostile and demeaning term; I’m honest about how I feel, just like you, which many people don’t like.
The Dream Catcher story is new to me. And I do not tell other people what to think or say – ever. That is a falsehood. If you knew much about me, you might not like me, but you would know that, at least.
I appreciate and respect your feelings (I was reading about Native American feelings about appropriating their culture this afternoon online), and I will ensure they are passed along and heard. Sue will want to hear it. I also respect you for increasing people’s awareness of this, mine, and others.
I will think differently about it, and I thank you for that. Best to you, Jon
P.S. I added this paragraph to my piece; I took it from a Native American website: “a dream catcher can symbolize unity between individuals and tribes. Many natives see them as a connection to their culture and a common sense of identity. When a person doesn’t understand or respect the meaning of a cultural symbol, using it becomes offensive and belittles its cultural importance.” That sounds right to me. I’m certain Sue has or will teach that…
P.S. I’m not sure I’ve ever written about Native American culture, let alone tried to speak for it. But I do find it offensive for you to tell me what I can and cannot talk or write about; I’m not aware that you’ve been appointed arbiter of what people can say about the Native American nations. You are certainly not in charge of what I say, no matter what the subject.
You are not inside my culture either, which has also suffered greatly from the insensitiviy of outsiders, but you have every right to speak up about anything you want. We are a nation of victims, I see, but not slaves.