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Wallace-Currie founded the Pink Pom-Pom Project in January 2011, shortly after she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. The Pom-Pom project is an art therapy program for cancer survivors.
She took her project one step further in 2012, having cancer survivors work with underprivileged inner-city youth from the Cardinal Shehan Center in Bridgeport. This summer, she is teaching counselors from the Shehan Center new techniques in design and crafting to build their own portfolios in hopes to start their own businesses.
“Cancer opens your eyes. It makes you live your life faster and more to the point.” -- Alexandra Wallace-Currie
She also taught Bridgeport youth this spring about beekeeping, the benefits of honey, and the environmental impact and importance of bees.
“This is a sustaining animal that has been around millions of years,’’ Wallace-Currie said. “Beekeeping is an approachable hobby. Bridgeport is the perfect spot for it, too, because it has 27 parks. Bees fly up to 5 miles to pollinate and create nectar. It’s a privilege to watch bees work. They’re in their own realm, and different from any other species on earth.”
From surviving breast cancer to keeping bees, Wallace-Currie has had an eventful 5½ years since her life-changing health threat. “Cancer opens your eyes,’’ she said. “It makes you live your life faster and more to the point.”
The turning point, Wallace-Currie said, was when her oncologist suggested she find projects to keep herself busy while she fought cancer. “I painted my bedroom walls, bought a sewing machine and kit, an easel with blank canvases, paint and new yarns. I knew was going to be there for a while recovering from chemotherapy and had to make the best of a bad situation.”
She knitted a hat -- “I couldn’t figure out why my head was so cold after I lost my hair from chemotherapy,’’ Wallace-Currie said -- and started knitting in chemotherapy sessions. She was living in London at the time, where her husband, Jeff, had been working. She donated scarves to two breast cancer support centers in London, and friends soon learned and volunteered to help.
“That was the start of it,’’ said Wallace-Currie, who graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in fine arts. “I’m a very visual person. If can see it, I can make it. I was crafty, but not at this level. I just had to keep busy. It was going to kill me if I didn’t have anything to do.”
When she returned to the United States and moved to Fairfield in 2011, she opened her business venture, A Little Square. The store offers gifts, children’s clothing, accessories and shoes. It also sells fabrics, and offers classes and camps for sewing, jewelry making and more. Shopping at A Little Square helps support the Pink Pom-Pom project.
She also hosts events, such as “Stitch ‘n’ Bitch,’’ a kids fashion show and “Wiggle and Giggle,’’ where children and adults use hula hoops to play games and raise money for the project.
“I did not reinvent the wheel,’’ Wallace-Currie said. “It was just a matter of coordination. I just took it and ran with it, and fortunately it worked out. I affiliated with hospitals in Bridgeport and Norwalk, and have had a lot of support from a lot of people along the way.”
Wallace-Currie finds particular enjoyment in working with the children in Bridgeport, many of whom come from broken families. “We give them an opportunity to learn something new and fresh,’’ she said. “They have something to look forward to and know that they’re being heard. They have their electronic baby sitters, like their phones or their iPads, but we give them the attention and guidance that they might not be getting at home.”
Wallace-Currie said she’s not certain how her business career has morphed into what it has. She just knows she enjoys it, and embraces it.
“I’ve been very lucky to meet the people, both privileged and underprivileged, that I have,’’ she said. “I try to take my experiences and pay it forward.”
Click here for more information on the Pink Pom-Pom Project and here for more information on A Little Square.
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