Oregon daily emerald., February 13, 1984, Page 5, Image 5

This “peace quilt'
Siberia.
Photo by Fravis Johnson
was constructed by 22 local citizens and will soon be sent to a small town in
From Eugene to Russia, with love
By Marianne Chin
Of the Emerald
While world leaders hold
summit meetings in search of
world peace, a group of area
citizens is working for the same
goal with a a needle and thread.
A quilt bearing the message
"The world is one country and
all people its citizens" will soon
be on its way to a small town in
eastern Siberia, the gift of a
group of creative and concern
ed individuals.
"It's an individual effort to
make an expression of peace
and effort to the Soviet Union,"
says Natasha Cottrell, one in
dividual who contributed to the
making of the peace quilt and
who has displayed it in Eugene
area schools and churches.
The idea of constructing the
quilt as an expression of world
peace and unity was conceived
last August in Monroe, Ore., a
town of about 470 people about
25 miles north of Eugene. The
resulting colorful five by six foot
wall-hanging made of 20 in
dividualized, handmade
squares will be sent to the peo
ple of Neran, Siberia, where
about 1,000 people live.
About 22 people contributed
their creativity and effort to the
construction of the quilt, which
is full of rainbows, birds and
messages, such as "Home
Sweet Home” and "Tomorrow
in our Hands.” The project in
cluded men and women from
Monroe, Alpine, Eugene, ard
Corvallis. One embroidered
square was sent from Buffalo,
New York
The project stems from an
organization called the Pairing
Project, "a nationwide program
of grassroots outreach from the
people of the United States to
the people of the Soviet Union,"
according to a pamphlet on the
group. The program has match
ed about 1,000 U.S. cities with
cities of similar sizes in the
Soviet Union.
The non-partisan group, also
called The Ground Zero Pairing
Project, wants to establish lines
of communications through
education and bridge-building
projects, according to its infor
mational booklet. The organiza
tion also is concerned with the
nuclear arms race.
The quilt project was organiz
ed by Monroe resident Loretta
Rivard, who wanted to do
something helpful about the
nuclear arms situation.
Rivard was asked to do a
square for a peace quilt organiz
ed by others, but when that pro
ject fell through, she thought of
organizing her own project.
"I feel real good about it,"
Rivard says. "It's gone beyond
what I hoped for as far as
reaching people."
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Through the Pairing Project, a
“Community Portrait," a collec
tion of messages and contribu
tions from the town's churches,
schools and a letter from the
mayor of Monroe, was mailed to
Neran. The package was mailed
in November, but Cotrell says
the group has received no reply.
“They (the Pairing Project)
told us that we may not get a
response the first time because
the Russians are cautious about
doing anything official," Cot
trell says. “After the second or
third try they get bolder and
usually respond," she says.
“It pulls everyone into the
feeling of sharing, brotherhood
and peace that people over
there won't have that same feel
ing," Cottrell says.
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