New tie-dyes

UNAFFORDABLE

I love how often the mainstream press is publishing articles on this situation we're working so hard to change.  Here's one about Kenya from the Guardian.

UNTOUCHABLE

And another about what girls and women must deal with in Nepal.

EMPATHY

Three guys experience what having a period is like.  And, as they admit, without hormones, cramps, bloating, etc.

GOOD EXCUSES

This list of obstacles to doing school work will break your heart.

GREAT QUOTES

Here

OUR JANUARY WORKDAY

In January we decided not to fight Mother Nature and postponed our gathering a week.  We had a very productive day, with some regulars and a few new faces.  Glenda found some new, beautiful stain-hiding flannel at JoAnn's, and brought it with her, already washed, dried and pressed.  It was rotary cut that day, and will make fantastic liners.

Inspired, I also made a trip to JoAnn's.  I was delighted to see several new flannels available, including some that Glenda had found.  They really are pretty, and I found the dark tie-dye ones especially  appealing--colorful (stain-hiding) on both sides, thicker than average (more absorbent), and SO pretty!  Seeing my overloaded cart, a fellow shopper asked what I planned to do with all that pretty bright flannel.  After I told her about DFG, she said she had some fabric she'd like to donate, and asked if I had a card.  That all-important word of mouth!

Snuggle flannel at JoAnn's is normally $6.99 a yard, but it's on sale for $2.99.  If you have a discount card--military, nonprofit, guild, teacher, etc., that can also be used.  And the selection is much greater (and the wait much shorter) than on Black Friday.  The clerk told me it "just keeps coming," and pointed to all the bolts high up on the wall, above the fleece.  She had to get a ladder to reach some for me.



OUR FEBRUARY WORKDAY

Although we have changed our workdays for 2017 to the first Saturday of each month, February was the one month we knew up front that we couldn't meet until the second Saturday.  On February 4th, I'll be speaking at the Regional Conference of Lions International, so our workday will be February 11th.

I hope you can join us on the 11th.  We meet at Our Sewing Room, 10:30--5:00.  PLEASE do bring your basic sewing supplies, sharp scissors or rotary cutter, seam ripper, sewing machine or serger.  Please remind me to take pictures!!

If you need receipts for in-kind donations you've made this past year, please just ask me.

MONETARY DOANTIONS

I was asked again this past week--what's the best way to make a donation to our Eugene Days for Girls Chapter.  Typically, 90% of a donation goes to us, and headquarters keeps 10%.  But, a few times during the year, there are special fundraisers where the teams and chapters get to keep 100% of their donations.  This is one of those times.  The Thread of Hope Fundraiser is online, and every dollar donated helps with our expenses.  They'll immediately provide you with a receipt for tax purposes.

NO workday Saturday, January 7th

Please be advised that we will not hold a workday today, January 7th,

Thanks to this morning's freezing rain/ice storm, we're advised to stay off the roads.  I've got a weather guy on right now, and he says the roads in Eugene/Springfield are turning into a skating rink.  Some parts of I-5 are at a standstill.  Please stay safe and warm inside.

We have rescheduled our January workday for NEXT Saturday, the 14th.  I hope you can join us at Our Sewing Room--I'm usually unpacked and ready to begin handing out tasks by 10:30.

If we have bad weather next weekend, please look for an email message from me in case we have to cancel again.  I'll also post a blog entry here.

Our Sewing Room is at the corner of 5th and Main.  You can bring your lunch and use their fridge, or pick up something to eat at one of the fun eateries nearby--Plank Town, The Pump, Mezza Luna, etc.

See you next week!

Happy New Year!

2016

What did we accomplish last year?  We provided kits for distribution in Kenya (3 times), India, Haiti, and to 20 foreign women with disabilities in Eugene last summer as guests of Mobility International.  We provided kit-making supplies to one of those women who wanted her sewing group to start making kits when she returned to Kenya, and 150 kits are in the works for a deaf teacher of the deaf in Nigeria.  And we supplied 80 shields plus fabric to girls in Tanzania.

651 beautiful kits all together, plus 80 shields and many dozens of yards of fabric.

Meeting Date Changes

In December, we changed our monthly meeting date from the 3rd Sunday to the 1st Saturday of each month.  So, our next workday is this upcoming Saturday.  I get set up by 10:30, so welcome you to come anytime after that.  It takes me about an hour to pack up, so we're usually out of there between 4:30 and 5:00.  If you're just dropping something off, please don't come at the last minute, as you could find the doors locked!

The only 1st Saturday conflict we saw in 2017 as we selected this new meeting day was in February.  On February 4th, I'm speaking about Days for Girls at the regional conference of Lions Club International.  So, we've rescheduled our second workday of the 2017 to February 11.

Tanzania

As I’ve said before, so many wonderful contacts have been made because one of us happened to have talked about Days for Girls to somebody.

Case in point . . . in September I started with a new doctor as my PCP.  When asked about employment, activities, etc., I told her about Days for Girls.  I had my second appointment with her earlier this month.  She told me that coincidentally, the patient she’d seen just before me runs a school in Tanzania, and was leaving in a few weeks.  I gave her my business card and told her to have that woman contact me if she thought she might be interested in our kits.

Well, that woman was Juliette Reilly (also seeing that doctor for just the second time), and she indeed did contact me.  In 2010, she founded a Pre-K--7 English primary school in a poor, rural community in Tanzania.   In that community, the government primary school is taught in Swahili, but the secondary school is taught in English, so the primary school graduates aren’t prepared to continue their educations.  Juliette’s school is taught in English, and the students are ready for secondary school when they graduate.  You can read about Juliette’s school here.

Because Juliette’s bags were already pretty full, and because she thought the girls would enjoy and benefit from learning to sew, we discussed the alternatives, and decided that our chapter would provide completed shields, plus some fabric to make the bags and liners.

We’ve met over coffee a couple of times, and I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this enjoyable woman.  She’s using her retirement years to change so many young lives!  Juliette told me Saturday that she just got some wonderful news from an old friend.  The friend has offered to match any donations made to Shikabania, to set up an endowment for the school, enabling it to continue once Juliette is gone.

Please read about the school on their website, and if you think this is something you’d like to help with, your donation will be doubled!  Donations can be made via the website.  Or, if you’d like 100% to go to this 501c3 nonprofit (no fees), you can send a check to Juliette Reilly, 241 Rock Creek Road, Drain, OR 97435.  Make the check payable to Shikabania School).  You’ll receive a receipt either way (for a check, it’ll be sent when she returns from Tanzania).

It amazes me how sometimes serendipity seems to know exactly where to strike!