Southern New Mexico Festival of Quilts gives back to community
ALAMOGORDO — An estimated 1,200 attendees packed the Otero County Fairgrounds during the eighth annual Southern New Mexico Festival of Quilts on Friday and Saturday.
The Southern New Mexico Festival of Quilts began as a cooperative effort with Pam Holland, an Australian textile artist, quilt teacher, photographer, author and lecturer. In 2010, Holland traveled to Alamogordo while visiting a longtime friend and attended a watercolor class while in town. After viewing Holland's photography and inspired quilts, the watercolor class agreed to take a look at quilting as art.
After Holland's presentation, Rainee Mackewich who was among the artists, invited Holland to be a guest speaker at a First National Bank sponsored Lunch and Learn program. Holland's textile art created such a sensation that Mackewich invited Holland to come back for a second time to be a guest speaker. Those presentations evolved into the Southern New Mexico Festival of Quilts and is still going strong eight years later.
Mackewich and a committee of eight community members plan and execute the Southern New Mexico Festival of Quilts each year.
During the festival, attendees can check out booths from regional vendors, view quilt displays or take quilting classes with Holland or Sue Rasmussen. Both Holland and Rasmussen are highly sought-after instructors and many people travel across the country to attend their classes in Alamogordo each year.
Holland's only stipulation to continue with the Southern New Mexico Festival of Quilts is that the money raised from the event benefits a local child-related organization each year.
"Imagine a celebrity coming in and picking your town and saying let's do this for the children," Mackewich said. "You'd want to work as hard as you can to provide whatever avenue it is that they're bringing. She could've picked any community but she chose ours."
This year, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) were selected as the beneficiary. CASA is a program of trained volunteers who are a voice for Otero and Lincoln counties' children in courtrooms and communities.
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"CASA is a volunteer-based program so all the monies we receive go right back into the program," said Ashley Helveston, Masters of Social Work intern with CASA. "Right now we're looking at a couple different options to use the funds for, whether it be providing foster kids with various items or we're also looking at purchasing a vehicle for the program. We do a lot of travelling to go visit our kids as well as to attend their court hearings and we usually use our personal vehicles."
CASA was one of five local groups that applied to benefit from the Southern New Mexico Festival of Quilts. In past years, the festival has benefited local children's organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club, Zia Therapy Center, Dolly Parton Imagination Library, Alamogordo Public Children's Library, Love Inc. Back Pack Program, Tularosa Little League Baseball and Operation Child ID Program.
"It's absolutely amazing, we're very thankful to have been selected," Helveston said. "It's great to see our community values our program as much as they do."
The 2018 Southern New Mexico Festival of Quilts is already being planned and is slated to host Ricky Tims, a musician and distinguished contemporary quiltmaker.
For more information about the Southern New Mexico Festival of Quilts, visit their website at www.snmfq.com.