Basic Grey: Konnichiwa giveaway

Konnichiwa! I would love to win this enchanting Oriental paper crafting set. I especially love the paper flowers and buttons for the 3-D effect.

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.

TACOS from Nokomis, IL, at MMDC #22

On the last Saturday in February we had the TACOS from Nokomis, IL. This youth group’s acronym stands for Teens About Christ Our Savior. Both senior and junior high students were among the 9 volunteers and 3 adults that packed PDKs for 3 hours. They completed 27 boxes for a total of 651 Personal Dignity Kits.

MMDC recycles all of the cardboard boxes that supplies come in, so all of the boxes (from toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, soap, razors, toothbrushes, etc.) have to be flattened to so they take up less space. 

 The boxes were rolled out to the warehouse and placed on a pallet.

Those pallets are then raised with a forklift and stored in the warehouse on shelves.

 Before each load goes out to those in need, it is blessed.

 So we prayed over the PDKs for those who will receive them and for those who assembled them.

Next Carl showed them how to shrink wrap the pallet of 28 boxes.

 And then a couple of the guys helped.