A Day of Service, With Great Results!
I just wanted to share with all of our Sisters the results of our day of sewing service. For all those who attended in person, and in spirit, for those who pinned and cut and ironed, and those who sewed, those who stayed for the day, for an hour, and those who took projects home to finish--THANK YOU!! And to Sister Maughan who found this project for us, spearheaded it all, and put in so many hours of preparation--THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! What wonderful results came.
This service project came in response to President Eyring's April Conference message, "To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Church welfare program, members worldwide will be invited to participate in a day of service. Leaders and members will seek revelation as they design whatever the projects will be.
I will make three suggestions as you plan your service project.
First, prepare yourself and those you lead spiritually. Only if hearts are softened by the Savior’s Atonement can you see clearly the goal of the project as blessing both spiritually and temporally the lives of the children of Heavenly Father.
My second suggestion is to choose as recipients of your service people within the kingdom or in the community whose needs will touch the hearts of those who will give the service. The people they serve will feel their love. That may do more to make them feel glad, as the song promised, than will meeting only their temporal needs.
My last suggestion is to plan to draw on the power of the bonds of families, of quorums, of auxiliary organizations, and of people you know in your communities. The feelings of unity will multiply the good effects of the service you give. And those feelings of unity in families, in the Church, and in communities will grow and become a lasting legacy long after the project ends."
As our presidency met and discussed what we could do to fill this call to serve, Sister Maughan contacted the hospital to see if there were needs we could meet in our own community. Jerralyn Smith, the activities director had had in mind the idea of getting clothing protectors for the long-term care patients for three years now, but the cost was too much. With our volunteer efforts, and the donation of money for materials from the Thrift store, we were able to provide them at half the cost they had found them to be. With all of your help, we were able to finish 34 clothing protectors and Cindy, Kathy and I were able to take them down one day in time for lunch!
Cindy, explaining how the new clothing protectors/aprons worked.
Sister Cathy Povis from our ward who is an RN at the hospital was excited to see the knew clothing protectors and help the patients all get them on. Cathy's mom, Sister Barr, was a huge help in sewing!
Jerralyn Smith, helping "Shorty' get ready for his lunch. A few days ago I ran into Jerralyn and she told me that the patients love them. She said that they try to keep them clean so that they can wear them all day. She found one lady carrying all kinds of things in the pocket and using it all day long. She wanted you all to know how much they truly appreciated your efforts, this had fulfilled her dream of three years. They felt that the clothing protectors were more like the aprons that most of the women had grown up wearing, and that they gve so much more dignity than a towel or 'bib' wrapped around them.
The bright colors helped cheer up the place. The service helped cheer up our hearts. Thank you all for your willingness to serve and to help fulfill such a great need in our little community to many of our dear and sweet little friends like Sister Jones!
All in all, we recorded AT LEAST 90 HOURS of service from all involved!
In closing, President Eyring's words reflect our appreciation to each of you, "The Lord’s way to help those in temporal need requires people who out of love have consecrated themselves and what they have to God and to His work." Thank you for your consecration to God and His work.
