MMDC #23

The team from McHenry First UMC and Mount Hope UMC from McHenry, IL, spent a day and a half at MMDC this week.

Here Executive Director Pat Wright accepts the checks for donations to MMDC from the team members.

The 10 women were troopers to spend ALL day on Monday stuffing envelopes for our partner mailing. There are only 8,675 letters to prepare, and we had about 2/3 of them done—and now they are ALL ready for labels.

Paloma Dillon of Tremont, IL, came for the day and helped stuff envelopes with Ginger and Val from McHenry, IL. When they were all stuffed, the gals did a few stretching exercises.

Next we started adhering mailing labels and EVERYBODY got into the act. Above are Paloma, Val, Ginger, Sally Jo, and Joyce. Below are Kysa, Jan, Linda, Pat, Beth, and Glynnda.

 Yep, that’s 8,675 that we’re working on.

February Volunteer Coordinator Susan Jacob marked the mail trays for the post office. These are for non-local or recipients outside of Chatham and Springfield.

On Tuesday we changed it up a bit and gave the team a change of pace. Kysa and Val traced patterns for little boys’ hospital gowns. In half a day they prepared 19 sets of patterns that will be mailed out when requested or sent home with volunteers who want to sew at home.

Part of the team including Glynnda, Sally Jo, Ginger, and Joyce also worked on Personal Dignity Kits in the workroom.

A job well done—275 PDKs completed!

And part of the team assembled flood cleaning buckets in the warehouse.

 Linda, Beth, Pat, and Jan check off items as they put them into the buckets.

 Jan is restocking the shelves for the next day’s work.

That rubber mallet moves so fast it’s a blur, Pat!

In the sewing machine repair room local volunteer Harold got some assistance for a day from Harlan Dillon from Tremont, IL.

Caretakers Dick and Judy weigh the school desks going out in a load. 

Bale, Mark, and Dick load sewing machines into the trailer.

 Dick moves the school desks into the U-Haul trailer with the forklift.

Then Mark called everyone together to pray out a load of school desks and sewing machines that are going to Nigeria. Below are Warehouse/Clerical Assistant Mary, Warehouse Supervisor Mark, Bale who was originally from Nigeria, and Glynnda. Bale told how his mother received a sewing machine after his father died which helped her support Bale and provide him with a better life. Glynnda recently traveled to Africa on a mission trip where they taught the women how to use treadle sewing machines.

 Holding hands, the volunteers and MMDC staff “connect” with the load being shipped.