Past programs and links
In Wisconsin Transcript #000413    Airdate: 12/22/2005
[Captioning made possible by U.S. Department of Education]
  Katrina Christmas
Tens of thousands of people whose lives were uprooted by Hurricane Katrina are trying to make new lives for themselves. In September we met a family of refugees flown to Milwaukee for shelter. But not everyone was there. The family had been separated in the chaos of Katrina. One man worked tirelessly to bring them together again and today, in the spirit of the holiday season, this family that has very, very little says they have absolutely everything. Hear their story, why they give thanks, but what struggles still lie ahead.

related links
Wisconsin Humane Society Katrina Relief
Katrina Relief
Hurricane Katrina Relief Organizations
Click Here to Watch Katrina Christmas - Real Player 5:02
Click Here to Watch Katrina Christmas - Windows Media 5:02
  Peace Council
In a world plagued with terrorism and hatred, a group of enlightened individuals is struggling to make a difference. The Madison-based Peace Council brings together high-profile spiritual leaders from different faiths to defuse tensions around the world. They shine an international spotlight on hot spots like Chiapas, Mexico, Israel and North Korea.

related links
Peace Council Homepage
Peace Councilors
Contact the Peace Council
Click Here to Watch Peace Council-Real Player 7:38
Click Here to Watch Peace Council-Windows Media 7:38
  Knitting Camp
Every summer since 1974, knitters have come to Wisconsin for knitting camp. The camp was first held at a University-Extension campground in Shell Lake. It s now held every weekend in July at a hotel in Marshfield. Meg Swansen of Pittsville, daughter of the late Elizabeth Zimmermann, who was the original teacher at Shell Lake, leads the camps. Producer Art Hackett explains how some of the camps have grown beyond educational efforts into an annual retreat and reunion for dedicated knitters.

related links
School House Press
Knitters Magazine Online
Knitting Stores in Wisconsin
Click here to Watch Knitting Camp Real Player 7:47
Click here to Watch Knitting Camp Windows Media 7:47
  Hugs and Hope
This season of celebration can be difficult if a loved one faces a critical illness, especially if the person suffering is a child. Five years ago Marsha Jordan began sending cheerful cards to these children. One thing led to another and now she has 2500 volunteers who offer "HUGS and HOPE" for sick children nationwide. In Wisconsin intern, Laura Kalinowski, found out about Jordan's holiday Elf Project and the smiles it delivers to children across the country.

related links
Independent Register Story about Kaitlyn Simpson
Hugs and Hope Homepage
Marsha Jordan Biography
Click Here to Watch Hugs and Hope - Real Player 4:39
Click Here to Watch Hugs and Hope - Windows Media 4:39
  Postcard: Newport State Park
A frosty look at Newport State Park in Door County, Wisconsin s only formally designated wilderness park.

related links
Newport Information
Information on Newport State Park
Newport State Park Map
Click Here to Watch Postcard - 1:15 (real media)
Click Here to Watch Postcard - 1:32 (windows media)

Think for a moment. How would it feel if you suddenly had nothing? I mean nothing. No home, no job, no belongings, no bank account, no way to even prove you are who you say you are. That's what life is like for tens of thousands of people evacuated after Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of those people now live in Wisconsin and have virtually nothing. Frederica Freyberg met one family that says, in spite of it all, this holiday season they have everything.
Frederica Freyberg:
Commercial airplanes hired by FEMA delivered some 200 evacuees out of the Hurricane Katrina devastation and into Milwaukee in September. Many carried all they had left in garbage bags. Many were separated from their families. That's when we first met the Brue family.
Sheryonda Brue:
It was hurting to know that I didn't know where he was and what his condition was.
Freyberg:
Torn apart by wind and water. Sheryonda Brue arrived in Wisconsin without her 5-year-old son, her sisters, or her mother. But one man changed all that.
Jim Pelegrin:
I was touched by her story when she got off the airplane.
Freyberg:
Wisconsin air guard pilot Jim Pelegrin helped re-unite the Brue family arranging commercial flights and bus rides to get them out of scattered shelters across the south, and all together in their new northern hometown.
Sheryonda:
My baby.
Freyberg:
At first the family stayed at the Red Cross shelter at State Fair Park. They now live in apartments in and around Milwaukee.
Viola Brue:
I remember trying to find my sisters. I was just so worried, and my momma. When I found my momma, I was so happy.
Freyberg:
The two teenage Brue sisters, their mom, and her fiance live in a tiny two-bedroom not far from the older sister's apartment. There's room for all the grand kids to visit and play. FEMA pays the rent, and it's furnished with the help of the Pelegrin family, including the Christmas tree.
David Bennett:
Beautiful people. Milwaukee has beautiful people here. The people were very kind, giving people.
Freyberg:
But it's been a struggle, 14-year-old Raynette Brue has attended four schools in four months, first in Houston, then Milwaukee near the shelters. She was at Greenfield High for homecoming when the family lived in a hotel. Now she's at Cudahy High in a tenth grade biology class as a ninth grader.
Woman:
Was it hard to go to so many different schools?
Raynette Brue:
Yeah, because I had-- I just met some people and I was just getting in, but then I had to go to another school and do it all over again and keep on doing it all again.
Aryan Haren:
For anybody, especially her age, it's a very trying and traumatic experience, but it seems like she's got a lot of will power, you know, a lot of drive, and I think that she's doing really well.
Freyberg:
The 16-year-old Viola says they feel safe here. She says New Orleans felt dangerous. And even before the hurricane, without hope.
Viola:
Before we never had nothing. Now we have everything we dreamed of.
Freyberg:
Everything a young girl dreamed of in a new city where the family is trying to put down roots. They have a place to call home, but they have no income.
Gelandra Brue:
That's what really-- what we are really worried about now, is being able to get a job to keep our place until we find out what we're gonna do.
Freyberg:
But even with a future full of uncertainty, this family says this season they feel blessed.
So this Christmas, what will this be like for you?
Raynette:
Blessing, like a blessing to have our whole family back together.
Viola:
It's going to be perfect. We won't even have no gifts, it will be great.
Freyberg:
Why?
Viola:
Because we would be with family. Eel we'll eat together, pray together.
Gelandra:
I got what I want, me and my family together.
Freyberg:
A family with very little, but a family that has everything.
Loew:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency reports that about 1,900 households in Wisconsin have applied for assistance as Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Of that number, the agency is paying for housing just over 100 families. FEMA has approved reimbursing the State of Wisconsin and local governments about $2.7 million for expenses relating to Katrina evacuees.


Devastation and tragedy are not always brought on by nature. We know all too well that there are places in the world where violence and fear are woven into people's daily lives. These places and problems often seem too big for us to do anything about, but one Madison man decided he had to try. His idea involved spiritual leaders from a broad spectrum of religions, leaders who work together to foster peace. Producer Liz Koerner found out whether his idea is working.
Liz Koerner:
Violence and war, hatred and intolerance, deeply-rooted conflicts that seem impossible to resolve. But a Madison man set out to do just that. Daniel Gomez-Ibanez formed an international organization called the Peace Council.
Daniel Gomez-Ibanez:
What's happening in Japan and in China particularly.
Koerner:
Gomez-Ibanez pulled together a board of trustees 10 years ago. In the beginning most of the members lived in Madison.
Gomez-Ibanez:
I turned to people living nearby if only to minimize travel cost to meetings, and I knew that we could find people with international experience, with peace making experience, with interfaith experience, who could be very helpful.
Koerner:
The board members bring together influential spiritual leaders once a year, a leader like the Dalai Lama is known around the world. Most are well known only in their homeland.
Gomez-Ibanez:
The Buddhist patriarch of Cambodia, not well known outside of southeast Asia, but enormously respected within the Buddhist communities of southeast Asia.
Koerner:
Maha Ghosananda led peace walks into combat zones in Cambodia during the war with the Khmer Rouge. Ghosananda and other Buddhist monks and nuns sometimes walked single file into the line of fire.
Gomez-Ibanez:
But both the Khmer Rouge and the government soldiers had too much respect for the Buddhist monks to, you know, to do anything but stop.
Koerner:
Another spiritual leader well known in Israel is Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman.
Gomez-Ibanez:
He's one of the founders of a group called Rabbis for Human Rights that works primarily to ensure human rights for Arabs in the occupied territories especially.
Koerner:
There are 20 spiritual leaders on the council, six are women. Saleha Mahmood is the director of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs. The institute works to improve relations between Muslims and others in countries where Muslims are the minority.
Gomez-Ibanez:
Again, she's very well known within the Muslim world. Not very well known outside of it. But because we have people like that, the Peace Council has a lot of credibility within Islam.
Koerner:
The peace council brings together people from many different religions to work toward peace. Sister Joan Chittister is a nun who serves on the council.
Joan Chittister:
It is absolutely imperative now. It is the only antidote we have to runaway fundamentalism, something that somehow or other sees itself under threat, and so threatens everybody else. The fact of the matter is we have got to honor, to respect, and to showcase what is the depth of every great tradition on this globe.
Koerner:
The spiritual leaders of the Peace Council came together for the first time in 1995. A Catholic bishop from Mexico asked for their help at that meeting.
Gomez-Ibanez:
Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia when he was the active bishop in his diocese was under constant death threats from paramilitary squads. So much so that this man, who's known as a man of peace, had to be provided with an armored car by the Mexican government.
Koerner:
Bishop Garcia asked the peace counselors to come to Mexico. He wanted to shine an international spotlight on what was happening to the Indians who lived there.
Gomez-Ibanez:
It did put an international spotlight on what was happening in Chiapas, and what is happening there is essentially the same thing that happened here in the 18th and 19th century. Namely, the wealthy European landowners are taking the land away from the Indians.
Koerner:
The national media in Mexico broadcast bishop Garcia's message for the first time during the Peace Council's visit.
Chittister:
I think anytime you can bring international attention to the most backward of situations, anytime you expose what has always been hidden, the effective hostility on the most vulnerable of any society, you draw the attention of good people everywhere.
Gomez-Ibanez:
We were told that our very presence was saving lives.
Koerner:
Saving lives by simply being there.
Gomez-Ibanez:
It's very simple. You don't have to bring anything. You just have to be with them. And here in our, you know, very affluent society, we have everything we need and we don't suffer, it's hard for many Americans to understand how powerful such a thing can be.
Koerner:
Since their first mission to Mexico, the International Peace Council has been invited to areas of conflict like North Korea, Israel, Palestine, and Northern Ireland, and while anger in these areas won't be resolved overnight, the Peace Council believes in a policy of persistence.
Chittister:
One, I believe with the Chinese that water wears away rock. I don't do what I do in order to succeed. I do what I do because I see myself as just one more drop of water.
Gomez-Ibanez:
It's like planting seeds. You're not quite sure what's going to come up, so the success emerges only with the passage of time, and often in a different shape than what you had imagined at first. But I think that even if we were to fold up our activities now and go away, we would have done something useful, because we have shown that this kind of interfaith work can be helpful. It can happen. It can work.
Loew:
The Peace Council gathered in New York this year. A major theme of the meeting was how to address the increasing influence of religious extremists in the world. If you'd like more information about the Peace Council log on to our Web site at wpt.org/inwisconsin.


We turn now to a peaceful gathering with very different goals. Warm, cozy, and colorful might be proper adjectives. It's called Knitting Camp, and devotees come to learn new techniques and renew old friendships. Producer Art Hackett went to camp to find out what keeps these knitters coming back.
Art Hackett:
You will recognize them by the bags they carry, bags filled with projects in progress.
Woman:
What do you have stuck in here?
Woman:
Everything.
Hackett:
Knitting projects. It is called Knitting Camp.
Betty Kendrick:
You live in a tent, roast marshmallows, you know, the whole idea of a camp.
Lisbeth Upitis:
Well, it started as a camp. They were up at Shell Lake actually in campgrounds.
Hackett:
But it's grown beyond that.
Christi Jacobson:
Welcome to camp. My name is Christi Jacobson. I'm the camp administrator.
Hackett:
There were reminders of camp.
Christi Jacobson:
Camp T-shirts. Here they are. Gee, who picked out the color for the camp T-shirt? One, two, three, cheese.
Hackett:
Group photos.
Woman:
And I hope I have enough yarn.
Hackett:
And craft projects. In fact, the camp is pretty much a nonstop craft project.
Woman:
I'm determined to get that done.
Hackett:
Meg Swanson is the lead teacher at the camps. She's the owner of schoolhouse press in Pittsville. They publish and sell knitting books and videos. The first camp teacher was Swanson's mother, Elizabeth Zimmerman.
Are a lot of these people your mother's disciples?
Meg Swanson:
Absolutely. She was mesmerizing. She wrote five books and had a couple of television programs. Those were wonderful and they were shown around the country on public television.
Elizabeth Zimmerman:
This is Elizabeth Zimmerman doing a little bit of knitting just to get myself started. This is called the Knitting Workshop, and I'm going to make you work like mad.
Hackett:
Elizabeth Zimmerman died in 1977. Her picture hangs on the wall of the classroom. Swanson says the first two sessions are closer to the camps her mother taught.
Swanson:
A lot of people will make a bunch of scarves and go on to do something else, and that's fine, but a lot of scarf knitters have gotten caught by the concept of what is possible in knitting, and they came to camp and they're just ravenous for technique.
Hackett:
But the last two sessions have shifted toward social events.
Woman:
I keep coming back because I find it-- I'm looking forward to it now as a retreat.
Hackett:
But there is also teaching.
Swanson:
Other people, instead of tightening the last knit stitch, will purl into the back.
Woman:
When I first came I was in the beginners, and I learned a lot of things. I thought I knew how to knit. Wow! The things you relearn.
Hackett:
Lynn Swanson is why Linda Padoco came all the way from Oklahoma.
Linda Padoco:
Absolutely Meg. She and Elizabeth, her mother, are goddesses, knitting goddesses.
Hackett:
Zimmerman kept people from getting so knotted up over knitting.
Woman:
Elizabeth was just an amazing knitting architect. She helped people understand that, first of all, to become thinking knitters, not just blind followers.
Padoco:
There's no wrong way to knit, and so much of our lives are you have to do it this way. Why? Because you have to. And with her it's the process and it's what you get out of it.
Hackett:
The knitting goes on from Thursday night to Monday noon. Even those adopting Zimmerman's relaxed attitude need relief. There are show-and-tell sessions. Some of the items displayed have been years in the making inspired from a camp session from years before.
M Lou Baber:
Two years ago I met Greg for the first time at camp.
Hackett:
And M'Lou Baber noticed Greg Cotton's tie-dyed T-shirt.
Baber:
Took lots of pictures, went home and charted it, and knit a tie-dyed sweater.
Hackett:
And this is the first time you've seen it?
Greg Cotton:
I saw a photograph of it last year, but this is the first time I've seen it.
Hackett:
And your reaction?
Cotton:
Wow! It's amazing.
Swanson:
And it's not plastic. You get to knit with real wool from real sheep and you get to knit a real sweater for someone you love, and you know there's a part of you in every single stitch. And if you're knitting specifically for someone, you're thinking about them the whole time. And it's really an act of love.
Baber:
And I'm going to give it to him to let his daughters wear it.
Swanson:
I think it's tangible and it's soothing, but it's not always soothing. When I'm in the middle of a new design, for instance, a color pattern or something, I get very excited. I'll get up early and stay up late to watch this stuff come out of my needles.
Woman:
Knitters are wonderfully compulsive obsessive people, and you're in a room with people just like everyone like you. It was great.
Swanson:
Someone said it's cheaper than a shrink. When you're finished with a round of golf, what do you have to show for it? We have a sweater.
Jacobson:
Good morning, knitters.
Audience:
Good morning, Christi.
Jacobson:
It's our last day.
Audience:
Oh, no.
Hackett:
A summer camp for kids might come to a close with a swimming contest or a talent show. Knitters camp is no different. One year ago the campers picked a theme for this year's contest project. The theme was masks.
Woman:
It's knit in one piece from the front to the back. So here's the water.
Hackett:
Cyndi McCorsley of North Carolina calls her project 'Nemo.'
Woman:
And to shut out the outside world.
Cotton:
Zorro comes out of the closet.
Woman:
It's supposed to be a sock monkey, but like my husband said, it's kind of a sock cow.
Woman:
And mine is titled, 'Just Hand Over the Yarn and Nobody Gets Hurt.'
Hackett:
Camp ends with a flurry of photo flashes.
Woman:
There's a lot of hugging that goes on here. Yes, a lot of hugging, because we see each other-- maybe this is the only time that we'll see each other in a year, and yet there's all those memories of having eaten together, knitted together, groaned and moaned together over the ripping out that goes along with knitting, because if you knit, you rip.
Swanson:
I tell you, knitting, it's powerful!


Loew:
It's nice to get together with loved ones over the holidays, but this season of celebration can be difficult if someone close faces a critical illness, especially if the person suffering is a child. A number of Wisconsin organizations try to make things a little brighter. One of them is 'Hugs and Hope' for sick children.' Our 'In Wisconsi' intern, Laura Kalinowski, found out about the hugs and hope holiday Elf Project and the smiles it brings to children across the country.
Woman:
Coats and snow pants.
Girl:
Oh, Emily.
Laura Kalinowski:
Christmas Elves have already been to the Simpson home in Brodhead, elves enlisted by a charity organization called 'Hugs and Hope.' 'Hugs and Hope' was founded five years ago by Marsha Jordan of Rhinelander. She had melt a little boy suffering from a brain tumor. Jordan wanted to do something to help. That help has grown into a nationwide nonprofit organization.
Marsha Jordan:
Our goal is just to provide smiles for kids who may not have a lot to smile about. So we do that through several different programs. Mostly we send a lot of what we call happy mail. Thousands of cards each month. And then we provide birthday parties and, of course, at Christmas we provide Christmas presents.
Kalinowski:
Nearly 3,000 volunteers give children and their families something to smile about, especially around Christmas.
Jordan:
We like to make every Christmas special for each of these kids because we don't know how many more they'll have. And they go through so much suffering throughout the year, we really like to see them enjoy the holidays.
Kalinowski:
The Elf Project, one of 'Hugs and Hope's' many programs, helps families like the Simpsons. Kaitlyn was born without the right side of her heart. She underwent a heart transplant when she was just nine and a half weeks old.
Jeanne Simpson:
She did great with that transplant until she was four, and then she had a tooth that got an information in it that we didn't know about, and that caused her to reject. It was a very bad rejection. She almost lost her battle, and she fought and fought.
Kalinowski:
Miraculously, Kaitlyn received a second heart transplant. Nearly four years later Kaitlyn is full of life. But the bills from her medical treatments make Christmas a difficult time. That's where the Elf Project comes in.
Simpson:
And it helps make your Christmas nicer, at least for the kids, because they are assured that they'll get presents. And it is such a magical, fun time of year for little kids. You would hate for them to miss out on that due to financial stresses and things. It's a great program.
Kalinowski:
Hugs and hope uses volunteer elves from groups including businesses and churches.
Phil Callen:
Callen constructions mission statement is that we care for people, our customers and their homes.
Christi Rebro:
And I saw a five-child family, and I thought a company like ours can handle something like that. So we posted all around our office, I put it in our company newsletter, and we raised money for them, and we went out and bought all their gifts and everything.
Donna Peters:
It's really hard to know that I have really healthy kids and that they have children that they don't know how long they're going to have them. I think it's better than buying for my own family. It's more of a blessing.
Kalinowski:
A blessing. That's what the Simpson family calls Marsha Jordan.
Simpson:
She has the hugest heart, she must, to be willing to invest so much of her time and her life to reach out to families that have sick children and to try and pull it all together for them to make it-- to ease their pain and their stress and to try to smooth it over as best she can. She must be a wonderful person.
Kalinowski:
A person who cannot believe her simple desire to help turned into a nationwide nonprofit charity.
Jordan:
I would like to see us help as many kids as possible throughout the country. We have limited resources, of course. But who knows what the future might bring. And I don't really think about what I would like to see in the future. I just take one day at a time, because I had no idea that it would come this far.
Kalinowski:
From Rhinelander to Brodhead, and coast to coast, with hugs and a wish of hope from some very special elves.
Loew:
That's our show for this holiday week. As we go, we're going to check out the snow at the state's only designated wilderness park, Newport State Park in Door County. For 'In Wisconsin,' I'm Patty Loew. Happy holidays to you and yours. Good night.


 
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