Love Infinity helps unite women from CWU, Ellensburg communities

While THRIVE specifically serves to empower women of color on campus, a group called Love Infinity was created a few years ago to bring together women of color across the Ellensburg community.

“We have done several breakfasts at The Porch and The Early Bird,” says Channas Stewman, who founded the group. “We started out wanting to do businesses of color and we have expanded, trying new things and going to different places. We have had a potluck breakfast at my house, and we have done painting. It's a space where we can just be.”

While Love Infinity has mostly seen women of color staff and faculty from the Ellensburg community get involved to date, Stewman expressed a desire to open the group up to CWU students as well. She also hopes to continue support and mentorship for the students involved in THRIVE by inviting them to join the Love Infinity group.

Stewman hopes this will foster a more welcoming environment for women of color around Ellensburg. She and her colleagues often find that when people of color move to Ellensburg, they tend to leave quickly because they have a difficult time building community.

“When Black people come to Ellensburg, not knowing anywhere to go, not knowing where you can buy hair products or Black businesses you can support, it can be really difficult,” she says. “For new students and new faculty coming to Ellensburg, we can be a connection. We can be their guide.”

While the Love Infinity group shares many joyous moments together, members can also offer support to each other when facing injustices or challenges living as women of color in a rural society that is sometimes forced to confront the evils of racism.

“During Love Infinity meetings, we also share bad experiences we have had,” Stewman says. “We recently had a new member who was able to let us know of a situation with the police so we could support her and give her empathy, love, care, and support.”

Stewman offered insight about the abundantly apparent barrier for women of color accessing hair care in Ellensburg, what this challenge means to their community, and how their group is trying to find solutions.

“We don't know where to get hair products or where to get hair done,” she says, explaining that the nearest place for Black people to get their hair done traditionally is in Yakima. “I am working with Mal Stewman at the DEC, and we are going to be doing a referral program toward the end of the month. We have found people who are comfortable doing Black people’s hair, braiding, so we have some contacts.”

Stewman says she has encountered people randomly around Ellensburg who have asked her where she gets her hair done. She explains that she had to learn to braid her own hair last summer because of the lack of available resources in Ellensburg. This is one issue the network between Love Infinity and the DEC hopes to address.

“What is one thing that helps women feel empowered and feel beautiful?” Stewman asks. “When she goes and gets her hair done — and we can't do that here.”

Director of Grants Miriam Bocchetti has been a member of Love Infinity since its inception, and she shares why this group is so important for her community.

“We try to meet every couple of months so we can get off campus and talk about life,” she says. “But of course, we always end up talking about work and probably venting and sharing stories.”

The group also hosts game nights, but it’s mostly an opportunity for friends to get together and share experiences they’ve had — both positive and negative.

“It's a great group. We are the vault,” Bocchetti says. “You've got friends that are the vault who don't tell anything. But it's not always super intense and serious things that we talk about. It could be anything from microaggressions we have experienced or a new friend and employee we want to bring to the table.”

Bocchetti says she appreciates being able to meet up with people who have experienced similar obstacles or successes in life. She says some of the group members are working on their PhDs, and they all encourage each other in their career endeavors.

“We feel like we are moving the dial, helping move the group along together,” says Bocchetti, who completed her PhD in 2022. “I think we all inspire each other. We all have good things to say about one another, and we can offer recommendations and advice. Not everybody who is part of the group really has family here or even family at all, so coming together is really that opportunity for us to bounce ideas off each other.”