Ask and you shall receive

I love to see God work. If you keep your eyes and ears open you will be an active part of it. 

In less than 10 days, a comment about a need for treadle sewing machines for Haiti became a filled reality. 

Sometimes God works fast! We started looking for two treadle machines and ended up with four. Four machines from the late 1800's-early 1900s were generously donated from Granite City, IL and Warrenton, Fenton, and O'Fallon, MO.  They were picked up and cleaned up and are now in a container leaving for Haiti on Sept. 18th along with bolts and boxes of fabric, thread, and sewing notions. What a blessing they will be to women looking for a way to earn income and learn a skill. 

 Busy Hands helping Haiti

We are blessed to have a direct connection to the non-profit Global Compassion and the ability to help in Haiti. The generous donations of fabric we have received over the years were used to create 53 Nanny Aprons, which will be shipping to Haiti on Sept 18th in the Global Compassions container. The aprons will be given to the women who serve as Nannys and Cooks in the orphanages and schools there.  

 Welcome STL CRET to our Busy Hands Team!

We are blessed to have a whole new group join us in our mission to serve others. On June 2nd we welcomed 20 members of STL CRET to our group. Even though our groups are not close in locale, we all have the same heart to serve.  It was wonderful to share patterns and instructions on Bibs, Burps, Sharing Hearts, Pencil bags, No tie blankets, Teddy Bears and Octopi and inform them about the need for these items and the people that will benefit from them.  Their talent and energy is great and we look forward to working with STL CRET now and into the future.  

Look at our new home.  Come and join us! 

We have plenty of room!  Look for the Welcome ironing board out front.

 Mastectomy items added to our growing list of projects

If you know of someone going through cancer or any major surgery that is in need of items to help make them more comfortable, please contact Tina.  We can help with pillows for support around incisions, clothing for double mastectomy patients, port pillows and more.  

                                                       Mastectomy camisole with drain pockets

                                    Mastectomy t shirt with pockets for drains

Wrap around Comfort pillow for the chest and various small size comfort pillows

Days for Girls Chad project delivery made April 8th

Thank you to everyone who took part in any way with this project to help the girls in Chad. With a lot of hard work and many hours at the sewing machine, our team was able to sew 636 Shields, 1164 Liners, 16 Transport bags, and 126  Drawstring bags.  And generous donations were made by others of 388 pair of underwear, 216 washcloths and 657 bars of soap.  These items filled the back of Colette's car and were delivered to a drop off home in Liberty, Mo.  That ladies home was taken over by the generosity of Days for Girls teams in several states near by, from basement to 2 car garage and part of her living room. 

Upon delivery we learned that EVERY ITEM WAS CHECKED FOR QUALITY.  Even though we are a Gold standard team, our items were all inspected for quality too.  We were able to obtain copies of the templates that they were using and will incorporate them into our quality control also.  

Thank you all for your willingness to help with such a worthy project. 

 

 We received a call for Days From The Chad Humanitarian Response Project! Chad is situated at the confluence of simultaneous and overlapping conflicts and insecurity, resulting in large numbers of refugees, IDPs, and Chad returnees. At present, Chad hosts over 470,000 refugees from Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Nigeria, as well as 330,000 IDPs, mostly around the Lake Chad region whose experiences have been compounded by COVID-19.

In partnership with Watoto Read and the Jesuit Refugee Service, DfG Chapters and Teams have the opportunity to step up to meet the urgent need of 21,000 refugees, IDPs, and Returnees in Chad.  Together we can reach refugees, IDPs, and returnees with menstrual health, dignity, and opportunity! What a difference we can make together.

I have spoken with Aliy and Laura. We are doing an inventory of items currently on hand. We have a good head start on items thanks to all of you!!

If you have anything you would like to sew or include we have a little notice this time! They are accepting: Kits (packed DfG supreme), individual sewn components (shields, bags, transport bags, liners), and individual non-sewn components (soap, washcloths, underwear - Girl's XS, S, M & L ). Just a reminder that DfG has fully transitioned to transport bags. We no longer send Ziplock bags. 

All items are due between April 1-14. I will drive our items to the distribution point near Kansas City on Thursday, April 8. I have contacted our distribution center. You can send or drop off items at my home at 4 Forest Dale Ct., O’Fallon, MO 63368 on or before Wednesday, March 31. Also, Aliy or I will be available to pick up items or meet you part of the way! Text me at 636-293-6665.

DfG Kits will be packed and shipped from distribution centers to Chad by Watoto Read. From there they will be sent to 13 refugee camps where the Jesuit Refugee Service will distribute Kits and teach the Ambassador of Women's Health curriculum. Any kits over the 21,000 requested will be allocated to other countries when opportunities arise in the Blue DfG Impact zone.

Together we can make a difference!

 

Big News!

Busy Hands 4 All is moving in March 2021.

Waypoint Church has graciously allowed us to use an awesome space for all future sewing dates.  The room is a large space with ample lighting, electrical outlets, tables and chairs and most importantly, STORAGE! This move will allow us to start meeting and still follow Covid rules. And no longer have to deal with stairs.  The room is close to the side entry doors, rest rooms and level parking lot.  

I can't thank Waypoint enough for bringing this dream to reality.  I look forward to meeting with our current members again and opening up to more people wishing to serve others through sewing. 

We will return to meeting on Thursday mornings at 9 am until Noon or 1pm.  If there is interest in adding an evening or weekend in the future, that might be possible.   The first date to begin is not finalized yet as there is a lot to get moved before I'll be ready to open the doors.  Please stay tuned for another email.  I'll try for as early in March as possible. 

Here are photos of the entrance and the room.  The doors we will use are to the left of the main entrance.

The address is Waypoint Church 4075 Old Hwy 94 S, St Charles, MO 63304