Joann Reid-Geraci gives Ryliss Bod credit for saving her future after Boeing laid her off after 32 years.
Now Bod faces losing her own job of 31 years. The sewing instructor at Bates Technical College leads one of two programs on the Yakima Avenue campus that are at risk of closing.
The threat to the Fashion Construction and Sewing Lab is just one example of how the state budget crisis is squeezing universities and vocational and community colleges – and how it’s shaking adult students of all ages.
Reid-Geraci had two options when she left Boeing: She could train for a job she’d never get, or she could train for a job she could create.
“They tried to convince me to go to school to do nursing or auto mechanics or dental,” she said. “But I’m 56. There would be thousands of people in their 20s coming out of that training with me.”
But she could sew, and she has all the equipment the fabric-fevered tend to collect.
Reid-Geraci dared the re-trainers to have faith in her and send her to the sewing program at Bates. If she can’t get hired after she graduates, she’ll have the skills to operate a business out of her Milton home.
Tionet Waters, 21, of Puyallup already has her own alterations business and carries a full schedule at Bates.
At the downtown campus, she’s gone past any “Project Runway” fantasies and is learning the skills to bring her ideas to one of the nation’s top five apparel design markets. The Puget Sound area is home to companies including Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, Gymboree and Union Bay.
“Fashion is a great way to express your ideas,” Waters said.
It may not be a way to express them at Bates for much longer.
The sole instructors at the school’s sewing and boatbuilding programs are among eight teachers who have received layoff notices. The other six work with other teachers.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Bod said.
The school offered to buy out her tenure, and she signed the offer.
Her students plan to fight for the program at the board of trustees meeting Tuesday at 3 p.m. on the south campus.
They are writing letters and plan to testify about the good it has done them. They have set up a blog (reasons4ryliss.wikispaces.com) for their testimonials to Bod’s skill as a teacher.
They think they have a chance. This would not be the first time students have saved sewing at Bates.
In the 1970s, as the women’s liberation movement grew, some administrators wanted to ditch it. They saw sewing in terms of underpaid piece workers and restricted housewives.
The women fought back. Sewing, they said, was a liberation, and a living.
This group will make a similar case. Reid-Geraci will describe the skills she’s learned and the strength she’s developed through the program.
“When I came here, I was devastated,” she said of her layoff experience. “They give you a greater sense of self-esteem. This is what’s going to help you move on.”
“It’s cheaper than therapy,” said Sharron Kanter, 68, of Lakewood, who is retired as a contracting officer for the Navy and is a volunteer crime analyst with Lakewood Police Department.
“As a classroom community, we’ve gone through deaths, divorces, breast cancer,” said Jo Hutchins, 64.
She has always sewn. Now her hands tremble with Parkinson’s disease.
“Ryliss has techniques to get around everything,” Hutchins said. “If you make a mistake, Ryliss can fix it, or find a way to make it a design element. We have a lot of design elements.”
Janet Nicoll, 67, of Northeast Tacoma, has owned J. Nicoll Designs for 36 years. She keeps the business healthy by updating her skills and staying current with products and trends. Bates helps her do that as no other local resource can, she said.
“I can’t believe how much I’ve learned here,” she said.
The learning spreads as it leaves the classroom. Cathy Swenson and Eileen Moebus, both 68 and from Graham, and Jessie Ashman, 64, of Roy, teach and judge sewing through 4-H and fairs.
The Bates students make quilts for charities, comfort caps for cancer patients, hats and kimonos for preemies, pillow cases for hospitalized children, throws and quilts for wounded warriors and aged veterans.
They do it with respect, kindness and precision.
For now.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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