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Date: 10/30/2023
GRANBY — Granby resident Rita Lariviere has been making dresses to be donated to children in Africa and around the world since 2015 and with the help of her daughter, she is trying to branch out the work she does to the community.
Lariviere, 91, has a one-woman-shop set up in the basement of her home where, as of 2021, she had sown and donated 1,000 total dresses to young girls in need in Africa. Now two years later, she has added a few hundred more to her total.
“I think it’s because it helps kids,” Lariviere explained on why she has kept this work up for 8 years.
Little Dresses for Africa is a nonprofit organization which offers works to provide clean water and primary education to communities in 97 countries. It starts with dresses, which the organization’s website calls “ambassadors to encourage and honor young girls [and also boys] and to establish relationships with villages.” Their motto is, “We’re not just sending dresses, we’re sending hope.”
The patterns provided by the organization, available on its website, call for pillowcases to be cut and altered into dresses. Lariviere was introduced to the idea through a Guideposts magazine and thought she had plenty of free time to take on the work.
Lariviere’s daughter, Ila Smith, said she has helped her mom’s newfound mission since the start and has been part of plenty of trips to Goodwill for sheets and fabric to create the dresses.
“People started finding out about it and they would drop off fabric or give mom trim and sheets,” Smith said.
Each dress crafted by Lariviere is one-of-one as she does not make doubles from the same fabric. After retiring herself, Smith started helping her mom out more and took on making some dresses as well.
Now the two are looking to expand their work and interest within the entire community. On Oct. 21, they hosted a sewing day at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Hall where about 13 residents stopped by and were introduced to the little dresses work and the work of Lariviere in town.
“That was the impetus for starting this whole day of sewing to see how many people we could get out. Why should she do this in a vacuum? Let’s try and get more people involved,” Smith explained.
According to the mother-daughter duo, feedback was great from their first sewing day and they hope to host another next spring. Like this past event, any future sewing day invites all people whether they can sew or not to come together for a day of work in making these dresses to be donated.
Close to 20 dresses were made throughout the day and about 20 more were taken home by participants to be returned to Lariviere and be delivered. Lariviere typically sends out dresses in packages of 25 to be donated to the nonprofit before being delivered to the children in need but it takes much longer than just a day for her alone to reach that number, an added positive from the community event.
Lariviere and Smith both talked about how the day provided a few different opportunities for children and adults of the community to get some hands on experience with sewing, something they added is becoming a lost skill compared to decades ago.
Reflecting on what she has accomplished in making close to 1500 dresses over an eight-year stretch, Lariviere doesn’t think much about it from the perspective she should be celebrated for, she just hopes the young girls benefitting like their dresses.
“I hope they really like them,” Lariviere said with a laugh. “I am very thankful though to be able to help. I just hope more people start making them too and more can go [to future sewing days in Granby].”
Looking at her mom’s work, Smith was more than happy to show love to her Lariviere’s work and how proud of her she is. She credited her work ethic and explained if she’s not doing work in the garden, she is sewing away on dresses.
“She’s amazing, she’s always been amazing, but this is one more level,” Smith said. “She knows and helps out all her neighbors in so many ways and this is the whole world, not just local neighbors.”
Lariviere and Smith both reiterated they are looking to host another sewing day in the spring and hope interest can continue to grow on creating these dresses for charity.