Monday, October 31, 2016

A BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE

SUPPORTING DAYS FOR GIRLS

A huge thank you to our wonderful supporters--those who made contributions during the Revlon Challenge Fundraiser, those who give up many hours of their lives making all the components of our kits that change the lives of the recipients, those who think of us when shopping and bring us the briefs, washcloths, Ziplocs, and the quilters and sewers who share their beautiful fabric with us.  We certainly could not do it without you--you are all helping us keep girls in school and change lives!

In the Revlon Challenge, Days for Girls International, formed just 8 years ago, went head to head with some huge long-established international charities. With all of our grassroots support, we were able to hold our own, and ended up in 3rd place.  All great causes, so we can't feel TOO bad, and we did win $75,000 plus some bonuses.  First and second place, as you can see below, went to organizations fighting cancer.  All of these dollars make a difference.



Our little Eugene chapter really shone--with so many generous contributions, and supporters urging friends to contribute.



We received 34 individual donations during the Revlon Challenge.  The total included $210 donated at my DFG information booth at the Emerald Valley Quilters' show earlier this month and $1150 from the joint yard sale we held with the Springfield Lions in August.  We will do that again next summer, so do save items to contribute.  It all helps us help more girls and women.

In this fall fundraiser, all the teams, chapters and others fundraising for Days for Girls International are listed on the fundraiser website.  Mostly they are local teams and chapters, like us, fundraising for the supplies we need to make the kits.  A few are representing a country where they have DFG teams or chapters--Paraguay, Ghana, Uganda and the Philippines are ones I noticed.  But one that really tugged at my heart was listed as "For Maddy."  Sadly, this high school girl, a volunteer for Days for Girls for a couple of years, died October 4th.  Contributions to Days for Girls in her honor and memory totaled almost $9000. What a beautiful tribute!  

So this got me thinking.  I need to update my will, and will include Days for Girls Eugene in my nonprofit bequests, and instruct my family to request donations to our chapter in lieu of flowers.  And then there's my quilt fabric stash--lots of lovely darker fabrics there . . . .  We got a generous donation earlier this year from the family of a Portland-area quilter who was going into memory care.  They were delighted that her pretty fabric and related items would be helping to keep girls in school.

HOW SMALL?

A question I'm often asked is how small a piece of fabric is useful.  Our pockets are made out of (washed & dried) medium-dark stain-hiding quilter's cotton print fabric that's 5" x 4.5".  For those of us who are quilters, we often have leftover pieces that would make great pockets.  If I have longer pieces, I like to cut them in 5" strips (selvage to selvage is great).  Then I fold and press them in half so I have a folded strip that's 2.5" wide.  The next step is to topstitch 1/4" from the fold, using matching or coordinating thread--same color top and bobbin.  Last step is to cut them into 4.5" lengths.  Final product, ready to go in shields, measures 2.5" x 4.5".  This is a great use for those smaller pieces of fabric at home (that you can't bear to toss?).  And it's even more exciting and appreciated if you do the work and bring us the finished pockets!

Bigger pieces left over from a project or calling to you at the fabric store/quilt shop?
If you have leftovers of washed, good quality, stain-hiding flannel, we cut that in strips 5.75" and 8.75" wide.  Prints work better than solids to hide stains.

For the shields and bags, we use good quality quilters' weight cotton.

For the shields, busy medium to dark prints that will do a good job of hiding stains.  After washing, we cut this fabric in 50" lengths (by 42"-44" width) for the Accuquilt.  We need to darker prints because girls won't hang them in the sun (necessary to kill germs) if they show stains.

We use our most beautiful fabric for bags.  No large areas of white or light colors, as they might often be set on the dirt.  The bags are the public face of the kits.  The girls want something they're not embarrassed to carry, and will use these every day, not just during their periods.  We cut them 12" x 29", an inch bigger in both directions than the minimum.  This helps the Ziplocs slip in and out more easily (less wear and tear).

All fabric should be washed, dried and pressed before being cut.  

Fabric restrictions are discussed in earlier blogs.  The biggest ones people forget are: 1) no camouflage in any color, and 2) no animals or people showing a face.



THIS SATURDAY

We've now switched our workdays to the first Saturday of the month.  I arrive at 10 to set up, so it's good if you come after 10:30, and we're there until they close at 5:00.  We still meet at Our Sewing Room at 5th and Main in Springfield.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAYS FOR GIRLS--November 1!

It's amazing how many hundreds of thousands girls and women have been reached in just 8 years, thanks to our fantastic, amazing,  compassionate and dedicated volunteers on 6 continents!  


Every Girl.  Everywhere  Period.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

First Saturday of each Month


As I mentioned last time, we are changing our meeting date.  We will no longer meet on Sundays.  Our new monthly date is the first Saturday of each month.  We'll still be at the same wonderful place, Our Sewing Room at 5th and Main in Springfield.  We are so fortunate that Mary Jo and Don let us meet there every month!  On occasion, there might be a conflict with something else scheduled for the facility.  In those cases, information will be sent to people on my DFG email list and posted here.  So, do check in!  Our next work day is November 5th.

We had a very productive workday last weekend.  As usual, my camera wasn't out enough, but here are shots of some of us hard at work.




April Haberman, director of the Days for Girls Chapter in Edmonds, Washington, shared this online blog interview, and is happy to have us share it.  You can too.  Click here to hear April talk about Days for Girls and the issues we are addressing.

Days for Girls International is still in the running to win the million dollars in the Revlon Challenge.  All money donated to teams and chapters counts in our nonprofit's quest to be the top money raiser in this competition amongst charities whose focus is women's health.  With three and a half days left to go, Days for Girls is in 2nd place, less than $40,000 behind the first place group.  I sincerely thank you if you've already donated to this fundraiser.  We've had wonderful, generous donations from many of you I know, as well as from friends of friends and supporters!  If you have been considering making a contribution to our Days for Girls Chapter,  this is the perfect time to do it.  100% of your contribution goes to our chapter (you can even skip the Crowdrise processing fee--just change it to zero) and every penny you give puts our charity that much closer to winning a million bucks!  Think of the impact that would have on the lives of so many girls!  If you donate they give you a link to share it on Facebook.  If you do that, please write something that might encourage your friends to donate too.

Use this link to donate to make sure both Days for Girls Eugene and our international group benefit. Consider donating in memory or honor of some special females in your life.  Ten dollars translates into a kit that will keep a girl in school for three years--wow!  How many kits can you support?

Let's end with a joyful photo from the Days for Girls Facebook page:



Tuesday, October 4, 2016

CHANGING OUR MEETING DAY

EVQ QUILT SHOW

I hope you had an opportunity to visit the Emerald Valley Quilters quilt show at the Fairgrounds this past weekend.  There were wonderful quilts, fun vendors, educational demos, a garment fashion show, and the always popular small quilt auction.  EVQ generously gave me space to set up an information booth for Days for Girls and I got to meet so many new interested (and interesting) people while telling about what we do.








I think we can expect some new folks to join us--which of course means we can help more girls receive an education.

Thank you to all of you who stopped by, shared stories, took things to work on, put your name on the email list, and generously donated to support giving girls back 60 days a year!  I put that cash--over $200--in our chapter account via the current Revlon Challenge fundraiser on Crowdrise.  Our international organization is hoping to be one of the top 5 fundraising non-profits to win the challenge money--$25,000 up to $1,000,000! DFGI is currently in 4th place.  If you haven't donated yet and want to make a tax-deductible contribution to our chapter, the challenge goes through October 26.  Our chapter receives all the money, but the donations count in DFGI's total for prize purposes.  Any money they win helps with setting up enterprises in the Third World.  More girls kept in school and participating in life every day!

One of our supporters emailed a few friends after making a donation, telling them that this was a great cause that she supported, and suggesting that they might like to make a contribution also.  Several did, and one made these comments I'd like to share with you: "This problem I learned about in 1993 when I did Hurricane Andrew relief in Homestead.  1/4 of all women under 50 are menstruating all the time.  It is as important as bread and water and clothing. Thanks for what you're doing."

250 KITS

As I mentioned in the last post, we've sent off 250 kits which will be part of a batch of 5000 going to refugees in Uganda.  I can't imagine the horror of being a refugee . . . a situation  made even worse by not having any way to deal with your period.  Patty generously packed her car with 250 kits and transported them to the team in Olympia, where the father of a headquarters employee picked them up and drove them the rest of the way to headquarters in Lynden, WA.  We have the underwear size marked on the Ziploc inside each kit, and then pack them in these trash bags, one size per bag.  This is what 250 kits look like.  Those bags are too slippery to want to stack!


IN SEPTEMBER

At our workdays, we typically each work on one facet of making a kit.  Pressing fabric, stitching casings on bags, serging flannel,  glue-basting labels, rotary cutting fabric, topstitching pockets, cutting out shields on the Accuquilt, etc.  I ask people to tell me when one task starts to get boring, so we can shift them to something else.  We got a lot done in September.



I love to have pictures of our wonderful volunteers on the workdays, and having the background be the quilts Mary Jo and Don display at Our Sewing Room make them extra special.  PLEASE remind me to take some shots every month!!

OCTOBER 16

October 16th is our next and final Sunday workday.  We will be at Our Sewing Room from 10 to 5, and are hoping for a good turnout.  This month we will be sharing space with the people making quilts for the NICU babies.

SUNDAYS

October will be the last month that we meet on a Sunday.  This is good news for those of you who find Sundays don't work well for you.  Stay tuned for an update on when we'll be gathering in November.  If you're not currently on our email list, you might want to sign up at the October 16 meeting.  I'll of course put the info on this blog too.

Thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of girls and women around the world.