Group stitches thread to Zambia

Author: Kelly Janis

Sometime in the not-so-distant future, an orphan in Zambia will don a t-shirt from the 2005 Addison County Fair and Field Days, while another sports the emblem of the Vermont Voltage Soccer Club.

The warmth furnished by these relics of central Vermont is attributable to the Mothers Without Borders Second Annual Sew-A-Thon, held on Jan. 26 at the Congregational Church on Main Street. The event brought together a wide range of community members - many, but not all, of them members of faith-based organizations - to stitch "t-shirt dresses" to ship abroad to those in need.

Last January's Sew-A-Thon in Bristol harvested the efforts of approximately 170 volunteers to yield 1,003 dresses. This year, as the day-long event sped into its mid-afternoon hours, volunteers had churned out more than 100 dresses, the organization's production goal reduced in magnitude from last year to adjust for the fact that the majority of sewing would occur entirely on-site.

"People just wanted to do something to help," said Pat Chase, who was integral in organizing the event. "It's fun, and it serves a good purpose."

Donations from local residents were instrumental in propelling the undertaking.

"We cleaned out Woody Jackson's basement," Chase said, referring to the local Holstein cow painter and owner of Holy Cow, "and found t-shirts from various and sundry things."

Such raw materials were transformed by the efforts of dozens of individuals who labored over sewing machines, cut and ironed fabric before matching it to t-shirts, gathered skirts and pinned them to shirts, packed completed dresses for shipment and served refreshments.

Alice Munson - who had been diligently at work stitching and hemming for over six hours - heard about the event from a friend who participated last year and resolved immediately to contribute. "I do it because I think it's great fellowship work, and that's what we're supposed to do for our church," she said. "It's more fun when we're all together."

Volunteers of all ages contributed to this spirit of unity as each age group carved out a niche at the event.

"We had young people do a fashion show for us this morning," Munson said. "But, they were kind of shy. I said to them, 'Didn't you ever watch the models? Don't you know how to model?' But they each put a dress on and came out for us."

The vast majority of those who devoted their time to the event were women. Jim Wright, however, existed as a notable exception, billed by those in his midst as "the sole male," in addition to one another who had been present earlier in the day.

The retired doctor joked that he had attended the event only after mistakenly identifying its sponsor. "I thought it was Doctors Without Borders," Wright said, "so I … no, I'm just kidding."

Wright characterized his sewing ability as "an early talent, a developing talent," and declared that, aside from his occasionally contentious relationship with the bobbin, his efforts thus far had proven "glorious."

"I think this is my second one," he said, tugging at the fabric of the dress he was straining to piece together. "Second or third. I've only been here for two hours, though."

"It's piecemeal," a fellow sewer reassured him, "so I think you're on your fourth."

Despite the display of levity, serious undertones ultimately prevailed.

"Looking at the orphans in Africa - it's just heart-rending," Wright said as he leafed through a brochure distributed by Mothers Without Borders, an international organization which serves children in orphanages in Romania, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nepal and Bolivia, as well children living in the streets of Africa and India.

According to its mission statement, the group strives "to offer hope to the orphaned and vulnerable children of our world by nurturing and caring for them as if they were our own" and "to support programs that ensure that orphaned and vulnerable children are provided with safe shelter, nutritious food, clean water, education, health care, vocational training, opportunities to contribute to their community and access to caring adults."

Since the Vermont chapter's launch in April of 2006, members have mounted numerous efforts to promote this agenda locally. In addition to its Sew-A-Thon, Mothers Without Borders Vermont has collected coats and warm winter clothing for local children and packaged and shipped 135 "Newborn Kits" to widowed mothers and orphaned infants in Zambia. The group hopes to visit Zambia in 2009 in order to aid in the construction of Mothers Without Borders' Children's Village and Family Resource Center, which is expected to provide shelter for up to 250 children and furnish villagers with vocational training.

Meanwhile, members are keenly focused on fine-tuning and expanding their local enterprises.

"Next year, we have a little wrinkle we're going to add to the Sew-A-Thon," Chase said. "One of the gals is going to come up with a pattern for boys' shorts, and we're going to put some of the t-shirts toward that. Somebody said, 'We didn't think about the boys!' and we want to make sure we think about everyone."