The Story Garden Banner: Creating things brings people together

Twenty-five years ago, around the world, kids who were part of ATD Fourth World’s children’s network, Tapori, carefully sewed their names onto beautiful banners that would travel the world. Those children are adults today, but their names continue to bring people together. Two of those banners have been decorating the Story Garden space in New Mexico for seven years now. One day, a grandmother gazed at the banners and asked, “When are we going to make our own banner?”

Story Garden in Gallup, New Mexico

In February of 2017 we began an enriching collective project called ‘The Story Garden Banner,’ through which we learned from and connected with the community more than we had expected. We invited children and their families to embroider their names onto fabric, and then all the names were assembled into an attractive colorful banner. Families and local businesses donated most of the materials, and parents and grandparents gave their time and skills to the project.

We were guided by three goals: enable the children to develop their fine motor and artistic skills; better involve parents, grandparents and other adult family members; and beautify the Story Garden space.

Two banners—made 25 years ago by children in Mauritius (above, right center) and in New York City (above, left)—have brought color and joy to our Story Garden space for seven years.

The skills learned from embroidery nurtured the children’s creativity. Many children expressed something about themselves through their choice of letter style and colors, and opened up about themselves. They expressed surprise and motivation when they explored the skill of hand-sewing, gaining a sense of pride in their work and achievements. For example, a 6-year-old boy was extremely thorough at following the lines he had drawn and the letters he sewed. This pleased him a lot and he said, “This is fun!” When he finished his name he wanted to help his 4-year-old sister with hers too!

One of our challenges during Story Garden is to engage adult family members in the activities. We believe that families are capable of creating positive and meaningful moments together, and we want Story Garden to be a place that nurtures a family’s relationships.

Thanks to the banner project, we connected with many families, and saw family members discover things about each other. For example, we know a family that sells regularly at the Flea Market. As we were explaining the project to the grandmother one day, she saw some of the banner name tags in our hands, and she said that her granddaughter, who has special needs, knows how to sew. Two weeks later the grandmother seemed so proud to tell us that her granddaughter had sewn not only her own name, but also the two names of her cousins! The grandmother hadn’t been sure that her granddaughter would be able to complete this project, but proudly told us that she had done it and had done it on her own! We now feel closer than ever to this family.

Creating things together brings people together: that’s the lesson of this project. Those two long-ago-sewn banners are still decorating our Story Garden space. Now, a new banner is next to them. Twenty-five years from now, who knows where our banner will be and what new generation of families it will bring together!

Our new banner, made up of the names of many of the children who participate in Story Garden today.