Their work offers warmth, joy, and a helping hand, but for the Buffalo Dream Weavers, it's both more sacred and more indescribably fulfilling than that.
“It’s so everyone knows they aren’t forgotten,” says Dream Weavers co-founder Rita Wojick. “It’s about helping people remember their worth and realize their worth, and know that someone is thinking about them.”
This past weekend, Wojick and the rest of the Dream Weavers were at the corner of Broadway and Bailey filling a chain link fence with bagged gifts of warmth– things like hats, gloves, and socks– for the group’s 23rd “Warm it Forward.” Each zipped clear plastic bag is labelled with sizes and anyone needs something is welcome to take it.
The Buffalo Dream Weavers use social media to bring together people who have things they’d like to share with people who need some friendly help and a smile. Events like “Warm it Forward,” their upcoming Easter basket drive, the always-ongoing filling of food pantries, blessing bags for the elderly are all made possible by people who do what they can when they can.
Wojick says to become a Dream Weaver, it just takes a follow on Facebook and waiting for the spirit to move you. Social media has connected people to amplify the goodness in each of their hearts, and take those connections to levels that might not otherwise be possible.
Being a Dream Weaver, Wojick says, really gives her something to look forward to, especially in times of stress. “Everything just seems a little chaotic right now,” she says. “When we pour ourselves into this, it gives us something positive to focus on– knowing that we’re doing what we can.”
As the number of Buffalo Dream Weavers has grown from a small handful of women doing good works in memory of Wojick’s friend James who died in 2009. It was James’ mother, Michele Johnson, who provided the original vision and scope for the group, which now also works in her memory. Johnson died in 2021.
They “are a group of mutual aid volunteers/donors giving back to our community,” changing the world, one smile at a time. Wojick says the thousands of people now involved show their formula for putting good into the world is one that works for quite a few people.
“We’re helping people, but in a sense, we’re really helping all of us,” says Wojick, who finds the unsettled world becomes a bit more settled when they see that what they are doing makes a difference.
Details on the Buffalo Dream Weavers next event:
