It’s funny how this little thing has followed past that stage at graduation.
If I’m being honest, I wasn’t expecting to leave a lasting impact on Wisconsin’s campus when I first started. It felt as if the odds were stacked against me; I was just another “scholarship kid” or just another “pre-med.” I was okay with that for a while, but the pandemic changed that.
So came some random day in June of 2020. I had just finished my freshman year and needed something to do other than running and introductory chemistry. So, like any normal person cooped up in their house quarantining, I went into my basement and into the corner where my mother’s sewing machines lived. When my sister and I were young, we would watch my mom sew different things, including traditional Nigerian garb, but we weren’t allowed to touch the machines because of an incident with my mom’s vintage KitchenAid. Yet, I found myself face to face with my new pandemic hobby (since coding fell off and I couldn’t bake too many sweets), and with the power of Facebook and a dream, I sustainably created a non-profit where I would upcycle donated clothes into other items like hats, cleaning cloths, and more. Eventually, Bucket Hats by Ash met its end with a 19-credit 100% online semester, but that spirit lived on.
Shortly after that, my scholarship friend, the wonderful Yvett Sanchez, was starting a new student organization that was all about sustainable fashion called Re-Wear It, something I found myself previously embroiled in six months earlier. So I joined….as Finance Director… but I still wanted a hand in the inner workings! So there I was, taking off every other Friday from my research project job to volunteer at the swaps. As well as establish a bank account, help write grants, and buy snacks as incentives for meeting attendees. It was another aspect of college life I found myself explaining to my skeptical mother and an aspect that I found myself loving. At the end of my junior year, I became President, and I was tasked with spearheading the logistics of it all.
I tell this story now because Re-Wear It feels like something I’m still attached to. Earlier this year, I returned to teach a sewing workshop (how full circle is that?!), and I am still occasionally asked by SoHE students to talk about the organization, even almost two years after my graduation. The thing is, there’s no real start or end to Re-Wear it. I’m the second-youngest of my siblings; I was in hand-me-downs until I was taller than my older sisters. My favorite hobby outside of jewelry making is taking really old and disregarded things and up-cycling them into head-turners. You will never see me without an estate sale sweater this winter. The list goes on. Re-Wear It is like the UW-Madison sustainable fashion version of a National Park sign that says leave no trace. Except…it sort of has left a good one. There’s the dichotomy of a broke college student being a fashion icon, but I can tell you that one icon is formed by an infinite number of icons that precede them…one sick sweater or vintage denim each.
I am very much permanently bound to Wisconsin via my Bachelor of Science, but I unknowingly found myself bound via the legacy of something beautiful and something I can happily celebrate the growth of. I am eternally proud of the foundation I had a part in setting to make Madison a greener place, one swap, workshop, and collaboration at a time. Keep on re-wearing your closet, and maybe stop by a swap if you need a refresh! I might need to do one of my own soon…
Admirably,
Ashley-Grace Dureke
RWI Co-Founder and President, 2022-23
Read more of Ashley's writing and view her work here: https://www.madewithgracebyag.com/the-blog
Comments