Gloria Hood, a former Greene County resident and educator, spent 27 years in the classroom as a special education math teacher before retiring early to focus on her small business, Sew Gloria Designs.
Hood found her passion for crafts at the age of eight, when her grandmother taught her how to crochet. A few years before retiring, Hood launched her small business and conducted all operations from the basement of her home.
Eventually, Sew Gloria Designs grew to offer a larger variety of products, necessitating a space outside Hood’s home. She decided to find a location and is now set to open a brick-and-mortar store in Athens later this month.
“Before I retired, I started posting on TikTok, Facebook, and other platforms,” Hood said. “I was doing tutorials, and it grew into a whole other different crafting thing with beading and yarn and all kinds of stuff.”
Despite leaving her longtime career, Hood was able to apply her experience as a special education teacher to her work as a small business owner.
“I miss the aspect of teaching so much, so I just took my teaching skills and brought them into the crafting world,” Hood said. “It’s actually turned out to be so much more than just a business for me because my heart really is with kids in special education.”
According to Hood, she plans to reach out to neighboring schools to collaborate with special education classes on their community-based instructional (CBI) programs. CBI programs enable students with special needs to develop skills and engage in hands-on activities outside the classroom.
She explained CBI programs provide students with “instruction for real-life scenarios.” Hood sees Sew Gloria Designs as a good opportunity for collaboration with students and hopes it could inspire some of them to start similar businesses someday.
“The kids could come in and learn a skill, like they can bag beads, or they can price items, and I can teach them how to make things,” Hood said. “So, in the future, they can maybe even develop a craft that they can potentially make money with.”
With her business plan to work with schools for CBI programming, Hood seeks to inspire special education students to discover their “God-given gifts.” She noted she emphasized the same principle throughout her career as an educator.
“I used to tell my students all the time that they can do and be anything they want to be, and they have greatness within them,” Hood said. “I believe the more you’re grateful for what you have in your life, the more the God-sourced creative universe is going to bring things into your life to be grateful for. That’s just my approach to life, trying to change and have a positive mindset.”
Eventually, Hood hopes to employ individuals with special needs at Sew Gloria Designs. She also plans to reach out to assisted living communities in order to conduct knitting tutorials for some of their residents.
“I just want my business to be able to enrich other people’s lives and to bring joy and inspiration through the joy of crafting, and just whatever it may be that they like to do,” Hood said. “In these next few weeks, I most look forward to starting a community of like-minded crafting people who want to come in and just share and enjoy their love of crafts.”
Hood’s store at 2440 W. Broad St. in Athens, is scheduled to open Monday, Nov. 24, with business hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.