My name is Alexis Forgatsch, and my partner Grace Vargas and I are implementing a community initiative through the Alachua County Library system.
Our project is called "To BEHOLD"; it stands for Believing Everyone Has the Opportunity to Lift Dreams, and it is also reference to the proverb "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Our project aims to have citizens from the community of Gainesville to uplift other communities in need. Every Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00 pm, we will meet at Alachua County Library Headquarters where Grace and I will be teaching skills to create items and/or art to then donate to a specific community. We will have rotating topics each month.
For example, in June, we will teach people how to knit and crochet socks to then donate to the homeless community. There will be 4 weekly meetings over the span of a month. There will be a small presentation and the rest of the hour-long meeting will be dedicated to teaching/helping attendants with making socks. These socks will be collected on the day of the last meeting, along with other donations people are willing to give. Grace and I will then donate these items to the homeless community within the next week.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the meetings! Please follow our Instagram, @tobeholdgnv .
Sincerely,
Alexis Forgatsch
University of Florida
alexisforgatsch@ufl.edu | (954)-670-9175
