‘Sewing angels’ come to Folklorama pavilion’s rescue after Ghana dancers’ costumes stolen

Parents and volunteers had tears in their eyes when dozens of young dancers took to the stage for their opening performances at Folklorama’s Ghana pavilion Sunday night.

For a week-long run of shows, the dancers are wearing new outfits sewn by a team of volunteers, including strangers, who answered a call for help after the originals were stolen days before the festival began.

“Seeing all these kids and their excitement over the outfits, and then watching them on stage, I was very emotional,” said Jaelynne Wormenor, a pavilion volunteer whose three children are among about 40 youth dancers who perform multiple times per night during Folklorama.

“There was a really special feeling. It felt like it was a celebration. Something really bad happened, but then there was hope, there was resilience.”

Pavilion co-ordinator Abigail Larson said her heart was full while the dancers performed.

“I felt so proud to be Ghanaian and I felt so proud to be from Winnipeg,” she said.

Two plastic storage bins containing about 75 costumes and 20 Ghana soccer jerseys were stolen from the trunk of the Wormenor family’s car while parked on Banning Street, near Notre Dame Avenue, in the West End.

Volunteers were devastated when the theft was discovered Thursday afternoon. That night, the pavilion and Folklorama used social media to seek fabric donations and ask people to help sew new outfits within three days.

“To recreate something like that, I thought it was impossible, and I’m an eternal optimist,” Wormenor said.

Wormenor and Larson were amazed by the community’s response.

Larson said 32 people helped sew new outfits all day Friday and Saturday at the Notre Dame Recreational Centre in St. Boniface, where the Ghana pavilion is being held.

They replaced the missing outfits and made new skirts for adult dancers.

“People sewed for hours and hours. I call them sewing angels because I think that’s what they really are,” Wormenor said.

More than 100 people donated fabric or money, while others brought food, drinks and gifts, she said. The soccer jerseys were replaced with printed T-shirts.

Volunteers from other Folklorama pavilions and cultural associations were among the donors.

Two people returned with their sewing machines for the Ghana pavilion’s first night of shows Sunday in case outfits needed repairs or alterations between performances.

Mother and daughter Tracey McLeod-Stecy and Sarah Stecy, who live in Winnipeg, felt compelled to help after seeing a social media post about the theft. They took their sewing machines and supplies to the pavilion.

“The energy in the room — I had so much fun on Friday getting to know people,” Stecy, 26, said. “We were all buzzing around like a beehive.”

“It was a really positive experience,” McLeod-Stecy, 59, said. “There was literally, at all times, 12 sewing machines going.”

Stecy encouraged people to help fellow community members if they see a call for assistance and they are in a position to do so.

“When there’s something you can do that’s local, or you can provide a skill that you have, I think it’s really important that you do,” she said.

The pair bought tickets to one of this week’s shows to support the pavilion and see the outfits on stage.

The outfits are worn by members of the Ghana Union of Manitoba Dancers, whose members spent months rehearsing for Folklorama. Each dancer performs in two or three dances per show, and each dance has a different outfit.

Larson said the pavilion is displaying the names of those who helped replace the outfits and soccer jerseys to recognize and thank them during each show.

The original outfits — made by people in Ghana and Winnipeg — were still missing as of Tuesday morning. Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Pat Saydak said an investigation by the property crime unit is ongoing.

Volunteers are clinging to hope the outfits will be recovered. Wormenor said she and others continue to check back lanes and around garbage bins in the West End in case the clothing is dumped.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca