Valley fabric headed to Hiland Mountain Correctional Facility

PALMER -- Activities promoting members' wellness are no less than one would expect from a local health club such as Curves for Women, but a recent effort by three nearby locations of the organization expanded the scope of this benefit beyond its own walls.

Curves held a grand opening for its new location on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway next to Valley Harvest Church on Saturday. The new facility represents an improvement over their former location, an old garage on South Colony Street in Palmer. In addition to the brightly-colored balloons, ribbons, and other typical celebratory accouterments, however, a large pile of cloth scraps, thread, and yarn lay heaped in a corner. An unusual addition to a grand opening, one might think, but Curves' management team wasn't simply placing its rag box on display. The piles of fabric were a donation to Hiland Mountain Correctional Facility on the part of the Palmer, Wasilla, and Eagle River Curves locations. Members of the health club brought in cloth and other supplies culled both from their own personal surpluses and purchased directly from sewing stores.

The entire pile took a single day to collect -- one of Curves' "Wacky Wednesday" theme competitions during which members of the club band together to participate in community-oriented activities and charity work. In return for involvement in any given Wacky Wednesday, Curves members receive Curves Bucks, which can be exchanged for prizes such as club apparel and Frisbees. In the past, the club has sponsored a yearly food drive every March, a drive to acquire school supplies for local students, and many other community service activities.

The material donation to Hiland complements a donation of 18 sewing machines to the prison organized by the Palmer Lions Club earlier this year. The fabric collected by Curves will be handed off to the Lions prior to shipping off to Hiland.

Hiland's Give Back Program, which puts female inmates to work creating garments, blankets, and other clothworks to support needy organizations around Alaska and abroad, can put the donation to good use.

In the past, women in the Give Back Program have created lap blankets for two Anchorage Adult Day Care centers, blankets for a neonatal care unit, tote bags for foster children, quilts for fund-raisers, 200 Christmas stockings (filled with useful items) for the Anchorage Pioneer Home, and 125 warm winter hats for an orphanage in Petropavlovsk, the poorest orphanage in Russia.

The Medicine Doll Project, an effort to raise awareness about AIDS, was also supported by Hiland. Currently, that program is creating pillows to provide a little comfort to mastectomy patients.

"I'm just really pleased that we can help the community," said Pat Saam, owner of the Palmer, Wasilla, and Eagle River Curves locations. Some of the fabric in the pile came from her own collection. "I try to participate as much as everyone else."

Curves emphasizes women's health in a variety of areas -- physical, mental, and emotional. In addition to a workout room, the location boasts a classroom for dietary education and a quiet "prayer room" intended to reduce stress and promote calmness.

"Women sometimes just need five minutes away from the kids and the phones," Saam said.

Contact Daniel Spoth at daniel.spoth@frontiersman.com.