The mission of the Bead Society of Eastern Pennsylvania is to encourage and promote interest in beadwork and its related fields through educational programs and social activities.
OUR LOCAL OUTREACH
BOTTLES OF HOPE
Bottles finished as of November 2011 meeting.
BSEPA members are decorating bottles to be distributed to local cancer centers as part of the Bottles of Hope project. Bottles of Hope are small bottles decorated, filled with an inspiring message of hope, and presented to cancer patients. They symbolize a hope for health. This project was started in 1999 by a Rhode Island cancer survivor. Bottles are made by artists, students, survivors, seniors and more who volunteer their time and love. Share your thoughts and experiences at: http://www.bottlesofhope.org/
QHS SCHOLARSHIP
The Bead Society of Eastern Pennsylvania offers a scholarship/award to a graduating senior of Quakertown High School. The candidates must be planning to attend further education in jewelry design, fashion design, crafts, photography or fine arts. Recipients are given a check at the annual awards program at the high school and are invited to attend a Bead Society meeting to show us some of their work.
OUR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION OUTREACH
The Bead Society of Eastern Pennsylvania has adopted Beads for Education as their international education outreach project. Beads For Education is a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization whose mission is to improve the status of women in the Maasai homelands of Kenya, East Africa. One of the main programs is sponsorship of the education of Maasai girls who come from impoverished families who cannot afford the school tuition fees for their daughters' education. Beginning in 1998 with two girls, Beads for Education's sponsorship program has grown to over 250 girls who have been guaranteed their school fees through high school and for some, college.
The Bead Society of Eastern Pennsylvania sponsors one of these
girls, Rose Naibimo. Member Wendy Ellsworth has made a number of trips to Kenya
and has met with Rose Naibimo each trip, taking her gifts
such as shoes, socks, shirts, pens, pencils, backpacks and
head scarves and, of cours
e, beads! She is full of enthusiasm
and gratitude for being given the gift of an education at
a qualified private academy. When she graduates , she will become a BEADS teaching intern for a year,
teaching at a disadvantaged school in either an urban or rural
area. Given the dearth of educated Maasai women, she will
be in an extraordinary position to give back to her people
and be a positive role model for them. None of this would
be possible for Rose without the support from the Bead Society
of Eastern Pennsylvania. The website for Beads for Education is www.beadsforeducation.org
Rose Naibimo, the young girl we sponsor in Kenya. Rose just finished 8th grade.
Wendy Ellsworth in Kenya with Maasai beaders