Extra workday planned for Saturday, September 13th!

Get the August 2008 flyer to copy and share.

Important News!!

Our goal for our service for Afghanistan is to be ready to assemble our kits (birthing, hygiene, & school) by the end of September. To help make that possible, we are calling an extra workday in addition to our regular workdays. It will be on Saturday, September 13^th from 9am to 4pm. Come any time you'd like for as long as you'd like.

Just as at any workday, there will be many choices of activities. Sitting, standing, & sewing projects… Because we expect a bigger crowd (catching those who cannot participate during the week) we'll just have more stations set up. Following are choices of activities we'll be working on:

• Sewing & serging: baby gowns, surgical drapes, quilts, wall hangings, school bags
• Sitting Jobs: tying quilts, crocheting hats, coloring, writing notes, preparing picture books
• Cutting Jobs: baby gowns, quilts, school bags, fleece blankets, wall hangings
• Sorting and inventorying: laces & trims, books, clothing, miscellaneous

We'll need a few more sewing machines, so if you can sew and have a portable machine, bring it along with an extension cord if you have one. (Please mark the cord with your name.)

We will need 'supervisors' to help with the various stations. If you can help in that way for a time that day, please reply and we'll get you set up with something you enjoy. It won't be hard – just be there to help women get going on their chosen activity and answer questions. Those of you who are regular workday participants would be great for that, though we can show anyone what to do.

• Thu Aug 14 Come anytime between 11:00am - 8:00pm
• Thu Aug 28 Come anytime between 11:00am - 8:00pm
• Thu Sep 11 Come anytime between 11:00am – 8:00pm
• Saturday, Sept 13 Come anytime between 9am – 4pm

Location: The LDS Stake Center at the corner of 5th & Wabash in Redlands (next to the temple).

Here's the latest on...

Parolee Support Update

• Thanks to the youth of the First Baptist Church of Redlands who recently collected for and assembled hygiene kits. Thanks!! Other congregations throughout Redlands continue to donate items for our parolee hygiene kits.
• Current priority hygiene items are fingernail clippers, pens, and shaving cream. Remember that hotel samples of anything are welcome. Again, everything on the list is needed (see August flyer).
• If you would like to learn of other ways the Step by Step Coalition is working to improve conditions and opportunities for parolees who have returned to our community – thereby improving our community – come find out more! The monthly board meeting – which is open to anyone who would like to attend – is held on the first Tuesday of each month at 4:30pm at the Redlands United Church of Christ. It is located at 168 Bellevue Avenue in Redlands (corner of Olive and Bellevue).

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Afghanistan II project news

Special Thanks to …

• Afghans for Afghans http://www.afghansforafghans.org/ who directed to us a shipment containing 3800 skeins of Coates and Clark wool yarn which was donated by Jo Ann Fabrics. The yarn will be used to re-teach the skill of knitting in Afghanistan.
  
  
• Two more Home Depots, who donated plastic sheeting for our birthing kits! We need three more large rolls to finish, so we're still out asking…
  
  
• Hoopoe Books http://www.hoopoekids.com/index.html, have donated 3600 new beautifully illustrated children's books by Afghan author Idries Shah. International Orphan Care arranged for this donation which contains Afghan folk tales of more than a thousand years.

Special activities outside of this month's regular workdays included

• Hurrah! Women of Citrus Hills Ward in Corona turned in 263 more completed diapers! We couldn't have done this without you!!!
  
  
• Women of Tustin 4th Ward's Relief Society have sewn 91 school bags! You wouldn't believe how timely your service has been!!!
  
  
• Ward Redlands 2nd young women closed an activity by writing personal notes which will be included in our school kits. A few young men even got in the act and wrote a few of their own.
  
  
• Redlands 4^th Webelo Scouts learned about the needs of the children in Afghanistan and prepared surgical glove & pad kits to include in our birthing kits and wrote personal notes to include in our school kits. Thanks scouts!

"Sweet miracle, to see how the largest burdens are carried by the smallest children."

Ardith James

Current Needs

• Donations especially needed right now:
  Colored pencils – on sale right at Wal-mart for 60cents a box! We need a bunch of these - 260 boxes.
  Roll-on deodorant – this style won't melt on the way to Afghanistan. We need 84 more.
• Also, donations of anything on the list below are welcome.
• What you could do at home: For sewers: we have baby gowns cut out ready to sew together. Otherwise: We'd like to include a personal note in each of the birthing, hygiene, and school kits we are sending. (We'd especially like to have youth write the notes for the school kits.) How about taking a packet of 10 cards with instructions that you can take with you to write when you have a few minutes?

Donations are still being accepted

If you have any of the following you'd like to donate, please let us know so we can arrange the best way to get it from you. We are so grateful for the quality and quantity of donations that have already come in!

• Medical equipment: wheelchairs, walkers, canes, crutches, commodes, braces, etc. (all in good working condition)
• Eyeglasses: in good condition
• Clothing: all sizes, modest, new or nearly new
• Shoes: new or nearly new
• Coats & jackets: new or nearly new
• Children's and Juvenile Books: very good condition
• Textbooks – elementary thru university levels: very good condition
• Medical journals
• Sets of Encyclopedias and Dictionaries: very good condition
• Puzzles - wooden or jigsaw: new or nearly new
• Educational Games: ie. memory games
• Sport Equipment: basketballs, soccer balls, tennis balls, ping pong balls, jump ropes, etc.
• Lotion is regular size containers: not samples for this purpose as the packaging takes far too much shipping space for the value of the lotion.
• Twin Size Flat Sheets: new; preferably white, but any color or print ok

Lending Library

If you've been waiting for Greg Mortenson (author of Three Cups of Tea) to come again to our area, he's coming soon to San Diego. (See below.) The venue is very large – 4600 – so it isn't expected to 'sell-out'. Tickets are free but required. I talked to Lisa Worman (number below) and she says groups of 15 can get reservations in advance. Otherwise, arriving by 2:00 pm is probably early enough to get a seat. Go to: http://commonexperience.sdsu.edu/three_cups_of_tea_bio.html to get more details about Greg Mortensen and what he's all about. We have the book and audio book of Three Cups of Tea in our Lending Library if you haven't read it yet.

Three of our women had the opportunity to listen to Greg Mortenson speak a few months ago in Palm Desert. We're including some of their thoughts again for new readers.

I had the privilege to hear Greg Mortenson, philanthropist and author of 3 Cups of Tea, One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time, present a slide show of his work in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was wonderful! It was uplifting and inspiring and heartwarming. It reaffirmed my desire to help our sisters in those war-torn countries and gave me hope that my little piece of service does indeed make a difference--a significant difference to a real individual.

One story in particular that Greg told pertains to us here in Redlands: In one region of the mountains, the death rate for women in childbirth can be anywhere from 5-15 mothers every year. One girl was educated in one of Greg's schools--and went on to become a midwife. Now she has been serving as a midwife in her area for 4 years--and there has not been even a single woman die in childbirth since!!! Wow! Education and supplies make a difference--and here we are, in our beautiful, wealthy and comfortable California, assembling kits for midwives in Afghanistan! I am sure that our service will be significant--just think of the midwife who gets a few supplies--how she will be able to help the mothers she knows...our kits may indeed save lives. WOW.

I cannot travel the world; I cannot raise thousands of dollars and orchestrate the building of schools in foreign lands; but I can spend some time preparing midwife kits, school kits, hats, mittens, toys and quilts for others. As I serve here, I am confident that I am serving over there, too.

Thanks so much for providing this opportunity to me, to all of us in the stake. It is great work.

I came away with the reminder of how desperate the situation is for many in the world (children were running barefoot in the freezing cold). I'm amazed that they survive at all! I have no doubt that every hat, blanket, diaper, etc. will be gratefully put to good use.

September 26, 2008 at 3:00 PM
SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY
Open Air Theatre
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182
Contact: Lisa Wortman
Phone: 619-594-2817
Email: lwortman@mail.sdsu.edu http://dus.sdsu.edu/commonexperience/three_cups_of_tea_mortenson.html

"The reason we love them is because we serve them."

Cray Carlson