Meet our volunteers: Mary Ann McCammon

Mary Ann McCammonMary Ann McCammon teaches quilting to women in three countries.

She’s taught in the CCQ Thursday class for the past eleven years. Her impressive quilting skills and gentle humor have empowered dozens of women incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.

Mary Ann also makes an annual trip to Yelapa, Mexico where she teaches local women to make small landscape art quilts that they sell to tourists. One student, Evelia, has been so successful that she’s sending her kids to college with the proceeds of her quilting business. Her daughter will start college this fall and her son will complete his senior year in engineering.

Last year Mary Ann began teaching quilting to women recovering from obstetric fistula surgery in Eldoret, Kenya. She works with a small non-profit, Beyond Fistula that supports women after surgery to reintegrate with their families and gain financial independence. The goal is for women to earn an income with their quilting. Mary Ann’s own art quilts and quilts made by her students in Kenya are featured in an on-line art show about obstetric fistula.