COMMUNITY
Crafting for a Cause Coulee Region women gather to create crafts that make a difference. BY JESSICA ZEN | CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Creating in the community of others can provide opportunities for connection and healing, as is experienced by participants in the Women’s Craft Program at the Coulee Recovery Center. The women spend time together creating a wide range of items, including jewelry, paper flowers and more. One particularly interesting project is making a purse out of a used feed bag and duct tape.
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ealing can happen in unexpected ways. Whether it’s through prayer, medicine, exercise or therapy, there is no limit to the different ways our bodies and souls can find balance, health and happiness. Though not traditionally thought of as having healing powers, crafting can have a bigger impact on your life than you think. BEAUTY IN HEALING The Women’s Craft Program at the the Coulee Recovery Center is proving, without a shadow of a doubt, that crafting has the power to help heal. Group leader Missy Wilde has been helping women focus on creating beauty for the past eight years. One of the great things about crafting is that it isn’t a formal program that focuses on “getting clean” and “Step work.” “We come in here to turn all of it off,” says Wilde. Craft group members who are new to fighting addiction benefit from having an easy activity they can focus on, explains Wilde. Finding a new way to pass the time can be scary, and crafting is a positive way to fill time that doesn’t require any particular skills or 38 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 www.crwmagazine.com
money. The Women’s Fund of Greater La Crosse makes it all possible by funding the program. Coulee Recovery Center board member and craft instructor Susan Fox finds that “crafting helps with recovery because it helps you discover something that you’ve never done before or uncover things that you used to enjoy.” There are no quality expectations, and everyone goes home with something they created. At the end of the day, the program is just a bunch of women hanging out together in a judgment-free zone and creating beauty. The craft group doesn’t follow any strict rules—members are encouraged to do what speaks to them. Group members use rocks, salt dough, gel pens, foam, felt balls, fleece and more to create unique items that can be kept or used as gifts. Wilde notes that some members use the crafts as gifts as a way to apologize to someone they have hurt. “They have such pride when they approach a project like that,” she says. Fox notes that another popular craft is using a magazine page and a glue stick to make an envelope, then writing a letter to someone who has made a positive impact on their life.
