Cathy Anderson and Marti Walker might not look as though they have much in common, but both find themselves confined and far from home.
Anderson is an inmate at the Utah State Prison. Walker is an 11-year-old girl from Arizona, whose right leg is growing much faster than her left.The two met Friday afternoon when Anderson and two other inmates handed out handmade clowns to children at Primary Children's Medical Center and Shriner's Hospital for Crippled Children. The afternoon meeting was the end, at least temporarily, of a project undertaken last fall by the Olympus Correctional Facility.
"The management of that facility was looking for some means of getting through the winter and holiday seasons without a lot of depression and self-destructive behavior," said Lt. Walt Yakovich.
After looking at a number of options, administrators and inmates decided they'd make clowns. But what do you do with hundreds of handmade clowns?
"We wanted to serve a need in our own community," Yakovich said. "So we contacted the hospitals to see if they were interested, and their response was overwhelming."
So the inmates went to work sewing, painting and stuffing clowns. Their goal changed from 150 to 300 and they exceeded that, Yakovich said.
"Once the inmates knew these were headed to this type of a situation, the inmates really identified with the kids," he said. "It was like one confined individual helping another. They just started pumping these clowns out."
Yakovich said the project achieved its goal: It reduced incidents of depression and self-destructive behavior in the facility. "I think for all the inmates involved, it was an easier winter," he said.
Anderson agreed. "It passed a lot of our time," she said. "It gave us something to look forward to."
She said many of the inmates were proud to have accomplished something so constructive while in prison.
About 80 percent of the 150 inmates participated in the project, but only three got to deliver the gifts to the children. Inmates had to be at a certain security level to be allowed to go off the prison property. Yakovich said three inmates - Marsha Howe, Kathy Hillman and Kitty Eakes - worked especially hard on the project but couldn't deliver the gifts because of their status.
Anderson said the inmates got together and decided who would represent them.
"Just being able to see their faces, is so wonderful," she said, smiling as she pulled another clown from a pink box. And apparently the children who received clowns felt privileged to get them.
"I have a glass clown, but it's not handmade," Walker said. "I think it's neat that (the clowns are) handmade and that they did them for us."