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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday August 8, 2007 - 13 Living Oakville Beaver LIVING EDITOR: ANGELA BLACKBURN By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Phone: 905-845-3824, ext. 248 Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: angela@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2007 Children labour for those in South Africa Erica Gilby loves sewing and kids -- and 16 years after stitching the two passions together, the fruits of her labour are abundant. Not only has the South African native taught local youths what appears to be the lost art of sewing, but now the local kids have sewn quilts for children in South Africa. Gilby operates the Erica Gilby Sewing School (www.sewup.on.ca) from her Oakville home and has for many years. She moved here from her childhood home in South Africa after living for several years in Cape Breton. Last summer, Gilby, her husband, John, and daughter Danielle, returned to South Africa to visit Gilby's parents. Once back home, Gilby found herself sharing with her sewing students how her husband's engineering firm, Golder Associates, works with the charity Walk in the Light to assist orphans of AIDS. As summer holidays became a fond memory and sewing studies progressed through the year, Gilby was pleasantly surprised to find her students were also enthusiastically taking up the cause for the South African children. Spare fabric from sewing projects was gathered. Some students handed over some of their savings to buy material. "It became hands on to them. It was real for the kids after seeing a picture of Mr. Gilby presenting a cheque," said Gilby. Others collected pop cans for recycling to generate funds that Gilby used to purchase fabric and sewing supplies. Once the quilts were stitched together, Gilby's friend Carol Cunningham of Beamsville, Ontario, finished quilting them on her machines. "It was one big, wonderful circle with everybody helping everybody," said Gilby. The sewing school already had a tradition of contributing to local charity. Its first charitable donation of a quilt was in 1997 to Ian Anderson House, the local hospice for cancer patients. Sewing students attend class for an hour DEREK WOOLLAM / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER HOPING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: Students of Erica Gilby's Oakville Sewing School were recently at Sheridan Hills Church to display the 20 quilts they made this year for orphans of AIDS in the South African village of Hanniville, near Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. See Children page 14 WHAT LOC AL BUSINESS SEARCH C AN WALK AND TALK? AS K T H E G OR I L L A . CHECK OUT VIDEO COMMERCIALS AND ANIMATED TALKING CHARACTERS ON brought to you by: