The students, with the help of Wade and art teachers Ceilon Aspensen and Lisa Black, made a quilt to be sold at the  Art vs. Oil Spill charity auctions in the Gulf Coast. Funds raised would benefit wildlife affected by the oil spill.

The quilt sold for $700 at auction.

“The kids were really excited about the project and to help out,” said Wade, a National Association of Social Workers member and founder and executive director of Achievement Services Inc., the nonprofit organization that runs Camp Achieve.

“They understood the purpose of making it,” she said. “They understood, some of them probably for the first time, how good it feels to give than to receive.”

Photo of Sapphire courtesy of USA Today.

Cheers to the author Sapphire for praising social workers in a Dec. 10 USA Today article on her book “Push.” The film “Precious” is based on that novel, which is about an obese, abused and pregnant teenage girl who begins to find self worth when she learns to read.

Sapphire told USA Today the movie and book share the same message:

“You can make it if you try, but you need a loving community, you need a teacher, you need a social worker, you need friends.”

Some social workers are concerned about the portrayal  of their profession in the movie (Click here to read about and listen to  National Association of Social Workers member Brenda Wade’s interaction with movie director Lee Daniels).

Sapphire defended her characters when she talked to SocialWorkersSpeak a few weeks ago. Click here to read that interview. Here’s an excerpt of that dialogue:

“I know many social workers and that influenced the creation of my character Ms Weiss. Two social workers and a social work student read the book in manuscript form before it was published and felt the portrayal of Ms Weiss was insightful and compelling.”

Brenda Wade

Brenda Wade, NASW member and a social worker for Baltimore City Public Schools, saw  Oprah Winfrey interview singer Mariah Carey about her role as social worker Mrs. Weiss in the film “Precious.” Wade said the film excerpts she saw made her concerned social workers would be unfairly portrayed in the movie.

Wade is deeply committed to the social work profession. She is executive director of Achievement Services Inc., a nonprofit that seeks to empower young people. And she writes the blog “Diary of a High School Social Worker.”

So Wade wrote director Lee Daniels. To her surprise he contacted her. Social Workers Speak! interviewed Wade about her experience: