For The Dialog
POCOMOKE CITY – Veronica Weiss recently came across a set of soft baby crib bumper pads, once commonly used to keep babies’ heads safe and extremities within the crib until medical groups discouraged their use.
The pads, featuring a bear cub and a ball, were too cute to simply throw away. Weiss re-imagined them as a sleeping mat with matching pillow for a young child, pulled out her scissors and sewing machine, and made that image a reality.
She took the set to Project Haiti, an informal group she coordinates at Holy Name of Jesus Parish, at its monthly meeting on Aug. 18. The group of about 20 women transform gently used shirts, towels, pillowcases, sheets, and quilts and dusters for bedding into a variety of clothing and other items.
“We make dresses from pillowcases, and market bags, boys shorts and hair ties from T-shirts, and sleeping mats from quilts and various other materials,” Weiss said. “We recycle and we reuse.”
Finished goods are provided to Sister Dianne Moore, who in 1983 was among a group of Sisters of Charity that founded a migrant ministry that grew into Seton Center in Princess Anne, some 15 miles north of Holy Name Church. Sister Dianne, a registered nurse, now works at a health clinic in La Tremblay, Haiti, and assists at the nearby Cuvier School compound.
Sister Dianne visited Princess Anne while in the United States last month and took some of the clothing back with her. “Haitians appreciate everything they get,” she said, but one key concern with many donations is if they are appropriate to the island nation with a tropical climate.
An example of that concern came after an earthquake-devastated Haiti in 2010. Well-intentioned donors sent sweaters and heavy clothing to Haiti. Haitians appreciated the sweaters, though perhaps not in ways the donors had imagined. Sister Dianne said the sweaters were unraveled, and the wool used to make other items that could be used locally.
Project Haiti at Holy Name avoids that heavy-material mistake by making clothing from lightweight material. Heavier clothing is made into market bags and similar items. Through July, the group had made 102 dresses, 353 market bags, 170 sleeping mats, 72 sanitary kits, 15 pair of boys’ shorts and 145 hair ties since it began in April. The sanitary kits include a cloth bag with plastic lined pouch, reusable sanitary napkins, washcloths, soap and, when available, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and deodorant.
Such efforts to help Haitians, who live in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, please Sister Dianne, but she hopes people also support other programs that promote good health and help the nation’s economy. She is involved in a goat program, for example, through which a family raises goats for milk that is made into cheese, and also for meat. Another program Sister Dianne supports provides water filtration units to women who provide a potable water supply for four other families.
Programs such as Project Haiti help bring the plight of Haitians into focus for Americans, Sister Dianne said.
“You cannot look at anyone in Haiti and not see the face of God,” she said. “They say every day in Haiti is Good Friday, but they still have hope.”
Project Haiti’s structure is open and cooperative. While a ministry of Holy Name of Jesus Parish, members represent several other Christian churches. Members work at their own pace, both at meetings and at home.
Meetings are casual. “We recycle, we socialize, and we give to the poor,” said Carol Pedrick. “And it gives us a creative outlet.”
While sewing unites both the items made and the group, members don’t have to know how, according to Weiss. “If they know how to trace and cut and measure, we can use them.”
The Holy Name group is a shoot-off of an ecumenical sewing group in Snow Hill that Weiss and two other women from Holy Name joined. That group makes items for a Christian couple from Salisbury, who do mission work in Haiti.
The women from Holy Name knew of Sister Dianne’s work in Haiti, and began talking with Sisters Cecilia McManus and Eileen Eager, longtime colleagues of Sister Moore who still minister in Princess Anne. The sisters coordinated information between the women and Sister Dianne. By March the group used the parish bulletin to appeal for material, sheets, T-shirts and other items; the first meeting was in April.
Soon it came to the attention of women in a water aerobics class at Captain’s Cove. They joined the group and soon began weekly meetings for local sewing sessions, bringing what they made to the monthly meetings. Some people at a Christian church in Seaford are now working to organize a group, Weiss said.
The ecumenical cooperation does not surprise Joyce Shockley, a Christian who coordinates the Snow Hill group, even if the goods go to different groups.
“We work together,” she said. “It all goes to the people in Haiti.”
