Michael Swaine
Michael Swaine is an Adjunct Professor, Ceramics at the California College of the Arts and he is a renowned artist.
But starting in 2004 on the 15th of each month, Michael has gone to the Tenderloin District, one of the toughest and poorest sections of San Francisco.
There on the sidewalk at 509 Ellis, he sets up a push cart he built and using an old fashioned treadle sewing machine from the early 1900's, he mends people's clothes for free.
Michael calls it the "Reap What You Sew Generosity Project."
But clothes are not all he mends:
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Michael also helps to mend hearts.
As he discovered, sometimes people just need someone to listen to them, someone who cares, as they discuss what have often been difficult lives.
Michael is there to provide a sympathetic ear and words of encouragement as well as clothing repairs.
He is creating the Free Mending Library in the Tenderloin, a place for "fixing holes in our lives," a place to "borrow thread," and sewing machines and other mending essentials and to talk.
By his kindness, Michael makes a wonderful difference in the lives of others and shows us that one loving person really can help to uplift this world, one person at a time.
