Beads represent various ideas in cultures throughout the world. Some represent religious ideas, cultural beliefs, but for one professor they represent giving women a chance at survival and an opportunity to be a leader.

Dorly Piske holds regular beading workshops to help raise funds to purchase mammography machines for Brazil.  This year Piske will be looking for individuals to take over some of the leadership responsibilities associated with the beading workshops. 

Piske is a professor of Portuguese at UW as well as Laramie County Community College.  She also works with incoming international students to help them become more proficient in English prior to attending classes.

A native of Brazil, Piske tries to keep a close ties with family, friends and her country of orgin.  She said Laramie has become her home, but her roots will always lie in Santa Catarina, her home state.

Piske started working with Partners of Americas five years ago to start raising awareness and funding for mammogram machines.  Piske said when she first started the beading workshops, she jumped in because she knew something had to be done.

Five years later, Piske said she finally has a system worked out and the program has gained credibility.  Piske’s program serves as a volunteer program.  She has done beading workshops with Upward Bound, troubled youths and those needing to fulfill a community service requirement.

Piske said some of the people who come to volunteer feel hesitant about beading at first because they feel they are not creative.  However, she added, some of those volunteers come up with the most interesting and beautiful designs.

In Brazil, access to breast cancer screening equipment is highly limited–close to nil, Piske said. The cost of a screening machine is nearly $70,000. 

Piske contacted universities in Brazil about running the screenings for breast cancer and the equipment.  The nursing programs go out to the country-side to perform exams.

To keep costs down and help build up the community, Piske purchases all her supplies from a local all natural beading business in Brazil.  She said she will often ask volunteers to bring back supplies in their suitcases when she knows they are traveling rather than shipping the materials to ensure most of the money made from sales of the jewelry is put toward funding the machines.

Piske said the beading distributer will visit the university later this year.  The professor spends the majority of her free time working with the beading workshops, which has paid off. However, now she needs people to take over some of the leadership.  Piske and the beading distributer will work together on finding leaders for the program.   

The Brazilian beading workshops are free and held regularly on Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. and Mondays from 4 to 8 p.m.  Arrangements can be made for special workshops by contact Dorly Piske.

Piske said volunteers are sometimes surprised that volunteering can be so much fun.

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