Rising From the Ashes: Meet Donna

When we first met Donna, she was a Paradise resident in our Senior IMPACT Project. Within a few months, she would be fleeing the 2018 Paradise fire with her husband, Oney, and her elderly father and two puppies. Now living in Roseville, Donna volunteers her time teaching monthly arts and crafts classes for our seniors.

Donna was legally blind her whole life, but in 2017 she began noticing a steeper decline in her vision and could tell it was leading to depression. Though she had used a white cane for decades, she had never had any formal training. Then she learned about our Senior IMPACT Project, where she joined other seniors in learning alternative techniques and skills to travel safely, efficiently and independently.

“I especially wanted to be able to go out my front door and take a walk by myself again,” Donna said. “At Society for the Blind, I picked up a lot of tips on how to figure out where you are and how to go where you want to go. After that I could go for a walk and not feel depressed anymore.”

Donna had always loved arts and crafts. Shortly before the Paradise fire, she hosted a German exchange student who taught her how to make beautiful origami boxes. She practiced them over and over so she could memorize the process.

By the time Donna had to evacuate the fire, she could no longer see. She credits the Girl Scout in her with getting the family out the door to safety. They lived at a campground in Oroville for a month and a half through the smoke and rain before they could return to Paradise to survey the damage. While their house survived, nothing around them did. At 92 years old, Donna’s father lost his house and everything except the clothes on his back.

The trio kept going farther and farther until they eventually landed in Roseville. Donna’s father passed away four years later.

Donna said they have adjusted well to Roseville, but orientation and mobility have been more of a challenge than in Paradise.

“I walked everywhere in Paradise,” she said. “Roseville is much bigger, and the curvy streets threw off my orientation.”

She was able to use the skills she learned at Society for the Blind and says Roseville was where she was able to hone her cane skills. She says now she can get from her neighborhood to the market and bus stop, among other places.

A couple years ago, Donna heard that Society for the Blind was looking for someone to teach arts and crafts in the senior program, and she immediately volunteered.

“My mom was always very crafty and artistic,” Donna said. “I wanted the students to make something that was useful and that they could complete in a couple of hours. Society for the Blind gave me a chance, and it’s been really successful.”

Donna began with teaching the group how to make a spring centerpiece using a terra cotta flowerpot, ribbon, marbles, silk flowers and more – all while using non-visual techniques. That day, one of the participants came up to her after the class and told her how much the class had taken away her stress. She told Donna, “Thank you, when I was working on this, I wasn’t thinking about anything else.”

Since then, Donna has taught the group how to use a needle and thread to sew lavender neck pillows, including enclosing them with a button they sewed on. They also have made wooden trays where they learned how to screw the slats together and then sand and oil the wood.

Donna standing next to SIP client Tina as she practices using non-visual techniques in an Arts & Crafts class at Society

“After we made the trays, one lady came up to me with a huge smile on her face and said she had never used sandpaper or a screwdriver before,” Donna said. “It was so much fun to watch her succeed at that.”

Donna also has brought in a small loom and taught everyone how to weave a decorative mat and frame it, noting that weaving is an ancient art that has not changed significantly since it was first created. She even taught the class how to make the origami boxes she learned to create shortly before the fire.

“Donna has taught so many techniques to our clients, from measuring and organizing to sewing and gluing,” said Priscilla Yeung, senior program manager. “She develops her own curriculum and it’s better than any other that I’ve experienced or seen.”

Donna’s husband, Oney, helps with the classes as well.

“I call him my Vanna,” she says laughing. “I usually bat around ideas with him so he knows what he’s going to help with.”

Oney made the wooden buttons that the group sewed on their lavender neck pillows. He also made the slats for the wooden trays and the weaving project, as well as the frames.

This holiday season, Donna is going to teach the group how to make greeting cards using non-visual techniques, as well as how to wrap a gift. She even purchased ribbon and gift tags with various textures for the students to choose from.

“I love getting to teach them that they can still do this kind of thing,” Donna said. “This is the sort of a job I always wished I had but never did. My husband absolutely loves seeing everyone go home with something they created. I plan to keep doing this as long as they will let me.”

Anyone interested in donating material supplies for the Arts & Crafts classes can contact [email protected] or make a donation to the Senior IMPACT Project here.