Folk school delivers for essential workers

    Brasstown – John C. Campbell Folk School is showing its gratitude for essential workers by gifting them heart-shaped crafts. The folk school asked artists in its community, which includes those near and as far away as Alaska, to make the small tokens of their appreciation for its Hearts at Work project.

    “The Hearts at Work project is in honor of the frontline workers in Cherokee and Clay counties,” said Jerry Jackson, executive director of the folk school, which is at the county line.
    It all started with a trip to the grocery store.
    Jackson was in the Hayesville Ingles during early stage of the shortages. When he reached the cashier, the cashier informed Jackson he may only buy two of the three loaves of bread he’d placed on the belt.
    He glanced at the cashier – whose name was Jimmy – and saw him place one loaf aside, then buy it himself. Jimmy didn’t say another word to Jackson.
“I was so focused on packing, I didn’t know he paid for the bread and put it in my bag,” Jackson said.
    Jackson said he could see how emotional and stressful those days were for the grocery store workers. That inspired him to help workers like Jimmy, who continue to push through with patience and kindness to strangers, making everyone’s lives easier.
    Soon after, Jackson shared his inspiration with others at the folk school, and the project was born. He put outreach coordinator Barbie White in charge of getting the word out to the folk school community. They needed 2,500 crafts to cover all the grocery store workers, first-responders, medical staff, restaurant workers and other essential workers in the Cherokee and Clay counties.
The community responded. Within two months, 190 artists provided the folk school with plenty of crafts. There’s a little bit everything – jewelry, baskets, stained glass, wood carvings and prints.
    “It really represents the diversity of our programming,” Jackson said.
The project even inspired two of the artists to do the project in their home community in the Northeast.
    “That was kind of a hope,” Jackson said. “That other people would do that.”
The folk school started distributing the 2,500 crafts to The Crown restaurant, Erlanger Primary Care and, of course, the Hayesville Ingles. Staff will continue distributing crafts to essential workers in the coming weeks.
    The folk school saved images of all the heart crafts for the archives before distributing, but saved one craft – a blue felt bear they decided to name Jimmy.
    “He’s going to stay here and keep the school safe,” Jackson said.
    Images can be viewed on the folk school’s online blog at blog.folkschool.org.