Figure Skating Club cuts
with both beginners and
, By KAREN BOUGHTON
Collegian Staff Writer .
With visiobs of Dorothy Hamill dan
cing in their heads, members of the
Fenn State Figure Skating Club practice
everything from skating backwards to
spinning on ice, in the Ice Pavilion from
October to mid-April.
During these Months, the club
provides approximately nine hours of
ice time per week for its members. Eat
session provides members with time to
skate freestyle or 'to practice skating
routines.
"In a typical session, everybody gets
on the ice and skates," Kathy Meyers
(graduate-physics), co-faculty advisor
of the club, said. "If you have questions
about how to do some skill, people who
are more advanced ice skaters will help
you out. Members can even bring their
own music to skate to."
The easy-going atmosphere of the
skating sessions is what many of the
members enjoy most about the club.
Quitters preserve tradition, raise incomes
~ r ~
Pat O'Neal, left, one of the founders of Village Crafts, Inc., and a volunteer
member of the Penns Valley Quilters, and Esther Wall, right, work on a quilt.
the
dail
Meyers said the skating sessions
create a very social atmosphere.
"It isn't like a phys ed class, with
someone marking you," Meyers said.
"There are also not any little kids
tripping you up like in the public
sessions at the ice rink."
"These sessions are definitely better
than having to go to public sessions,"
Daniel Evans (9th-biology), another
member of the Club, said. "Although we
have to pay to be in the club, if you make
most of the sessions, it comes out to be a
bargain."
"There is room on the ice and plenty of
space to do anything," Evans said. "You
just go around in a circle at public
sessions. There are also people to help
you out and the ice is a lot better."
There are approximately 100 mem
bers in the ice skating club this year,
compared to 140 membeis last year,
Meyers said.
"During the very cold weather this
winter, there has been low attendance at
Y Collegian living
' ~ f.`t
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sessions but we do average about 30
people at each session now," Karen
Higashida (9th-biological health),
president of the . club, said. "We en
courage beginners. In fact the majority
of the club members are beginners."
"The beginners are the backbone of
the figure skating club,"Meyers said.
Meyers also said that there have been
times in the history of the figure skating
club when people who were beginners
were not welcome.
"We felt that they should learn how to
skate in phys ed classes," Meyers said.
"This year, however, we have a very
good program. We have been able to
help everyone, beginners and ad
vanced."
Meyers has been involved with the
skating club as long as it has been in
existence.
"In 1967 the club was started. A bunch
of us used to meet at the rink on
Tuesdays and Thursdays and soon the
The Penns Valley Quilters, above, members of Village Crafts, Inc., work on a
quilt in the home of Helen Decker in Spring Mills. Village Crafts, Inc., is a non
profit organization which helps low-income people supplement their earnings
by selling their handicrafts. From left to right, Pat O'Neal, Lois Witmer, Esther
Wall, Marian Ziegler and Helen Decker work on the quilt in which they have al
ready invested 150 hours. The women meet three days a week to work on the
quilt. The quilt is entirely hand-made; machine quilting, although a time-saver,
By DIANA YOUNKEN
Collegian Staff Writer
Inside a white clapboard house by the
small stream that runs through Spring
Mills, five women are busy stitching
memories in time and preserving
tradition.
Three days a week the Penns Valley
Quilters gather around their bold and
colorful masterpiece, a Pennsylvania
farm scene stretched across a massive
wooden frame that nearly fills an entire
room. Sometimes they tell old stories,
talk about singing but don't practice at
all, or they say nothing as their hands
move swiftly with the needle. A
reflective, peaceful spirit pervades the
room.
They are members of Village Crafts,
Inc., a non-profit organization founded
in 1971 that tries to help low-income
people supplement their earnings by
selling their handcrafted work. "One of
our prime goals is to preserve the
traditional handicrafts, particularly
local," says Village Crafts field worker
Lynn-Ellep Dixon.
Nearly `l5O people share in .this
cooperative effort and for the quilters
it's "a learning process." "We share
each other's knowledge," one of the
women says.
.
Some workers are temporarily or
permanently unemployed, over half are
elderly, and many of them are young
mothers, most of whom live in rural
areas, according to Dixon. Others are
the ice
experts
Figure Skating Club was formed from
our group," Meyers said.
Although competition with other
universities is not feasible for the club,
its members hope to show their talents
to the public by sponsoring an ice show
in April. The club is planning to feature
dance routines, freestyle skating
routines and comedy acts in the show.
"We had a little exhibition last year,
but there was not a very good turnout,"
Meyers said. "This year we want to go
all out if we can:" ..
Also in April, the United States Figure
Skating Association will send
representatives to judge members of the
club in a series of proficiency tests.
Great proficiency in figure skating,
however, is not important to the
members of the figure skating club.
"What I like best is the people,"
Higashida said. "Even when I'm helping
out beginners that's fun for me."
"It's a very friendly way to learn how
to skate," Meyers said.
mentally retarded or handicapped. "We
haven't been able to include all of the
handicapped we'd like to because of lack
of staff," Dixon says.
Although 86 per cent are considered
low-income according to state
guidelines, anyone can join Village
Crafts depending on his skills, Dixon
'says. Twenty per cent of each member's
profits is placed in a general supply
fund.
The retail store at Skytop on Route 322
sells wooden, copper-enameled, stuffed
and patchwork toys and gifts but the
group takes most pride in its quilts. "We
feel our quilting is top-notch and it's
becoming more widely recognized,"
Dixon says. So recognized, in fact, that
Village Crafts received a grant from the
Governor's Council on the Arts to design
a quilt as a Bicentennial gift from
Pennsylvania to the White House.
The quilt, which depicts Pennsylvania
activities and crafts includes stitch
es by other Pennsylvania craftsmen,
was to be displayed in the Visitor's
Center in Washington but apparently
has been temporarily mislaid due to the
changeover in administrations, ac
cording to Dixon. The group plans to
write Cong. Joseph Ammerman to
inquire about its disappearance.
Private individuals from Philadelphia
and Chicago have ordered quilts, ac
cording to Dixon, and the Penns Valley
Quilters' current project' a Penn
sylvania farm scene is for a Los
A weekly look at life
in the University community
Daniel Evans (9th-biology) takes advantage of the nine hours of ice time pro
vided for members of the Penn State Figure Skating Club each week. Although
skaters must pay to join the club, Evans said it turns out to be a bargain if you
make most of the sessions.
"is a kind of sacrilege," according to Village Crafts field worker Lynn-Ellen
Dixon. The quilt is on order to a couple in Los Angeles and will probably cost
approximately $415. The Village Crafts quilters also made a quilt as a Bicenten
nial gift from Pennsylvania to the White House through a grant from the Gover
nor's Council on the Arts. Helen Decker, far left, works intently on the quilt,
which depicts a Pennsylvania farm scene. Decker has been quilting for over
20 years and helps teach others to quilt.
Angeles couple who will pay about $415
for it. "They were interested in a
custom-made quilt that was unique,"
Dixon says.
And it is both, says O'Neal, who ex
plains that quilts are made differently
here than in the South or in New
England. "Pennsylvanians tend to enjoy
the bolder-colored quilts," she says.
"There is a pride in the fineness of the
stitch and the curved lines of the
quilting."
Most of these women didn't know how.
to quilt before they joined Village Crafts,
according to O'Neal, who says she has
learned a lot about design. "All of us
have something to learn and we can get
better at it," she says. "You learn a lot
just through doing it."
Quilting is a sentimental experience
for Helen Decker, who's been at it for
more than 20 years and helps teach the
others. "A lot of people say your hands
should be engraved in gold," she says. "I
wouldn't be able to sew if they were. The
next one I make will be better."
The quilt is also significant because
it's handmade; machine quilting "is
kind of a sacrilege," Dixon says. O'Neal
agrees: "You wouldn't get the group
effect with machine quilting anymore,"
even though it would speed up
production.
The fabric alone costs about $4O, and
although the women have invested some
150 hours into the project so far they "do
not make high money on this kind of
Friday, April 8, 1977
work," O'Neal says. According to Dixon,
most members earn about $3O to $5O a
month. More productive workers can
make up to $3OO monthly on seasonal
items.
Village Crafts was granted $7,000 this
year by the Governor's Council on the
Arts and will apply for federal aid for
next year. "But we're having the most
trouble with local funding," O'Neal
says, since people seem to think the
organization is a private business.
According to a state Neighborhood
Assistance act, local corporations now
will receive a 50 per cent tax deduction
from any donation to Village Crafts,
Dixon says.
The group's main sales outlet is a
wholesale catalog which is mailed to
shops in almost every state including ,
Hawaii and Alaska, Dixon says.
Sometimes the members will venture
to state-and county-wide fairs together
to show and sell their work, and they will
take the best of their quilt collection to a
Cincinnati fair at the end of April, she
says.
Scrimping on food and shelter is a
necessity but it's all part of the fun.
"We've been known to sleep in the van
and live on a 10-lb. bag of granola for a
week," Dixon says. "That's a slight
exaggeration, of course."
The Village Crafts store is open
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, 10
to 4.
ERIE
, ,
Photo by Joe Torl