UC Law Students Will Patch Together Sept. 11 Fund-raiser

Students at the UC College of Law hope to use the symbolic power of the American flag as a centerpiece for a campaign to help children affected by the Sept. 11 attacks.

The college's Student Bar Association (SBA) has launched "Sewing for Scholars," a charitable effort where sections of a flag-shaped red, white and blue quilt are being sold to students, the university community and other supporters. Purchasers will have an opportunity to personalize their section of the quilt, before returning it for re-assembly.

The finished quilt will then be put on display within the college, and the money raised sent to Mercy Corps, an organization providing scholarships and trauma counseling to children who lost parents on Sept. 11.

SBA expects to raise more than $5,000 with the project, making it the largest charitable project the group has ever undertaken.

"We felt the fact that the money goes into a scholarship fund for kids coincides well with the project being in a law-school setting," said Ella Marshall, the chair of the SBA committee organizing the fund-raiser.

SBA president Jameece Walton said the law school's students had been searching for an appropriate project that would express their feelings about the Sept. 11 tragedies. "When the idea of doing a quilt came up, the flood gates just opened," Walton said. "It didn't take long for the ideas about offering sections of the flag (for sale) to come up and for us to realize this could be an awesome fund-raiser."

The finished quilt will measure 8 feet by 6 1/2 feet. A total of 100 squares - 50 red, 50 white - will be made available to students for a minimum donation of $10, and student organizations, faculty, staff and administrators for a minimum donation of $25. Squares can then be decorated with appropriate words or images to express feelings about the events of Sept. 11.

A total of 50 individual white stars will also be offered to alumni, law firms and other friends of the law school for a minimum donation of $50. The name of the sponsor will be written on the star.

The project will end on Feb. 28, 2002 or when all the materials have been sold. Then, the committee of five students overseeing the project will work to sew the quilt together in preparation for display. One star and four patches have already been purchased in the week since the project was announced.

"All professions were affected by Sept. 11," Walton said. "But in particular as law students getting ready to go out in the world and who will come back here as lawyers, this project will stand to remind us of this time, how we felt, and what we put into this effort."

For access to order forms for the project, visit www.law.uc.edu/intranet/orgs/fund091101/index.html. For more information on the project, call the SBA office at (513) 556-0051.