MMDC -- #2

We arrived in Chatham, IL, last night. This morning we had safety training. We have to go through this training once a year to make sure we follow the proper procedures. It is held in the chapel. Here we are right afterwards.

Right across from the chapel is the third warehouse under construction. MMDC continues to grow and serve more and more people all over the U.S. and throughout the world. 

Jay unloaded the school desks made by members of Trinity UMC in Charles City.

Monday was a day when we performed numerous tasks. In the workroom school kits were assembled. Here Susan and Carl bundle 3 ink pens with a rubber band.

 Jay helps pack the boxes with completed school kits. Between 12 and 14 completed school bags go into each box. The number of kits, today’s date, and the box’s weight go on the outside. Then 28 boxes are stacked on a pallet to be shrink-wrapped for shipping.

Jay is stacking 2 spiral notebooks and a pad of filler paper to go into school bags.

Karen and Carl are opening packages of student blunt-nosed scissors. When they come in a blister pack, the cardboard backing is recycled and the plastic is discarded. Only the scissors go into the school kits (eliminates waste and weighs less for shipping).

Karen and Susan are bundling 3 ink pens for the school bags. All of those cardboard boxes are broken down and flattened to be recycled.

Jay and Carl are scraping the gum off the bottom of donated school bleachers. Then the boards will be run through a planer, the corners routed, and then cut into seats for school desks.

Carl uses a putty knife to scrape gum off the bottom of bleacher seats.

Jay flips over the bleacher seats to remove the gum from the bottom.

Susan opens packages of spiral notebooks for school kits.

The cellophane wrap is removed from packages of spiral notebooks.

Karen and another volunteer bundle 3 ink pens for school kits.

Susan packs school kits into a box. A plastic liner keeps the school bags dry in transit. Then the boxes are taped shut.

Karen helps assemble school kits. Each of the bins contains pencils, rulers, protractors, erasers, pencil sharpeners, pens, scissors, and boxes of crayons. The ruler and protractor are placed inside a spiral notebook for shipping so that they will be flatter and won't break. 

We found out that a shipment is being prepared to go out this week. It will fill 3 shipping containers the size of a semi-trailer truck. Included will be hospital and school supplies going to eleven countries in Central America.

The shrink-wrapped pallets of supplies are labeled for each of the eleven countries.

This pallet of supplies is going to Honduras.

These school desks are bound for Haiti.

Flannel and birdseye diapers are going to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. There are also layette and birthing kits.

 School bags are headed for Panama.

Cover Them With Love quilts like those donated from Trinity UMC are going to Haiti. 

Hospital “gowns” will clothe children at Grace Children’s Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. These are shorts and shirts for little boys.

 Little girls’ gowns are an A-line dress and shorts. Almost every hospital gown stored in the warehouse is being sent in this shipment, so we’ll be sewing more.

Sewing machines on the left are going to Honduras, and the blue barrels filled with hospital supplies like band-aids are going to Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

These school desks are going to several Central American countries.

 Used hospital beds have been donated for Grace Hospital in Haiti.

From the photos I took today you can see where all of the things that members of Methodist Churches in eight states in the Upper Midwest have donated for UMCOR (United Methodist Committee On Relief). Midwest Mission Distribution Center in Chatham, IL, is one of seven such UMCOR distribution centers in the United States. Many hands make light work...

To those of you who are reading my blog and have donated school kits, health kits, birthing kits, sewing kits, hospital gowns, layette kits, diapers, etc., the members of TEAM TRINITY thank you for your support. We also appreciate all of you who have sewed school bags, Cover Them With Love quilts, hospital gowns, layette gowns, and receiving blankets, have knitted or crocheted baby sweaters, and have built school desks. In addition, we value every dollar that you have donated for shipping costs of kits going around the world. Together we can make a difference!