Pillowcases for Christmas

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

These were sent to the USS New York in December.

These were sent to the 467th medical unit that was at Ft. Hood the day of the terrorist attack:

Some misc ones recently sent out:

[StephanieAlice]

Sue
I really love the idea and would love to join in.
I love to sew and have lots of time to so so as I do not sleep lol
Whatever you think is a realistic goal just give it to me and I WILL accomplish it.
I have my husband and many other loved ones on the Lincoln and love the idea!!!

[dollyslaffn]

Sue, time is not a problem,at all, with me,and I am pretty fast, but funds could be a problem. Is there some way we could buy material wholesale or have it donated,say, by the manufacturer? Or even Walmart? I also have no outlet nearby which sells fabric. So if I can get the funds and the fabric, my machine is oiled and threaded!

[stepmomofsailor]

Dolly - could you use some material?? I have a cousin that just bought a Fabric store here in the big town of Dayton and I talked with her yesterday and she said that she thought she had just what I needed to send to some of you all. I will see if I can't go down to her shop one day this week and see and get it in the mail to you.

[Matt's Mom/Cathy]

stepmomofsailor I am sure that there are a lot of people that would love the material to make pillowcases out of. If you haven't yet head over to the Heads at Ease page and post there. There are some ladies that keep up with names of people that sew that you could ship fabric to. Tell your cousin Thank You and thanks to you for thinking about this project.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

Amen.

[dollyslaffn]

I just thought about something...do they still teach home ec in schools? This would be a perfect project for extra points or even a class project.

[StephanieAlice]

Oh yes! A lot of schools have it as a requirement. I had to take it in 7th grade as a required class and they have many classes for it in high school. My brother is in a sewing class actually.
Although he only joined because he is the only boy in the class lol
That is a great idea
As far as the fabric...
Sue-
do you have any of the licenses or paperwork for a non profit organization?
If so we could have a letter written up asking for fabric and sewing donations for the cause and that would be a way to help with the fabric dilemmas.
I have had to do ALL of that before for some organizations that I helped form and participate in.

I actually have a fabric and quilting outlet down the street and a quilting store in the area as well.

[Jackie D]

So my reply to this is.... I know what I could do myself (timewise and economically).... prob. about 100-200. I started this ball of a discussion because I was thinking about this other project I joined in with knitting 6" stockings for another ship (another carrier) and thought it was a great idea. I do agree though, if we can't do it well, then we can't do it at all.

Picking a particular area of a ship would be a smaller way of doing it, but it would be rotton to leave out so many. I know my son's dept, has around 100, at least that was what it was on last deployment.

It'll def. take a lot of work and only 1 contact to work out the logistics. Once a sewing leader was established, then they would prob. have to contact one of the umbudsman to get the okay and find someone aboard ship that would be willing to take the project on aboard ship........ maybe a chaplain ?...... they would have to be the contact person to sending the pillowcases and if we each sent them directly to that person and kept a running count which would be given to the sewing coordinator, we'd prob. have a good chance to get it all right.

Another idea is to get ALPHA involved... I'd bet they would love to help tackle this project!!!! They did so much during the last deployment.

So those are my thoughts, I am willing and able to do what I can.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

okay. ladies. some more thoughts and a homework assignment.
1. I cannot take on the coordinating of this thing. HAE, my job, craft,avon and real estate business already take a big chunk of my time. Yes, I would help, but someone else needs to be the coordinator. And it is alot of work.
2. I am not a 501c and have no plans to become one. I have a letter that I have sent out to family and friends and asked for donations. That is how I have funded HAE from the beginning.
3. My personal best in mailing is 37 in a large flat rate box. Even at $1.00 per yard, that would be about 37.00 plus the 12.50 to ship. but most fabric averages out to $2-3 per yard.
4. yes, I've had schools sewing for HAE. again, lots of coordination.
5. there does need to be a point of contact. And it is difficult to make sure everyone gets one. Had that problem with the Crommelin and the NY. And with the NY, we had the ombudsman and a Navy mom there doing the distributing. It would probably work better to do a unit at a time and have that person disburse to their unit. Like your child. haha much smaller chance to someone not getting one.
6. I don't know what ALPHA is.

7. Homework:
a) using the numbers I gave in #3, do the math and figure out how much it would cost. And how much can you afford to spend? Another navy mom found 24 white pillowcases from Sam's club online for $33, which includes shipping. That is a fabulous price. BUT what can you personally afford to spend? another navy mom had 164 pillowcases for the Cleveland that her sister made, but she couldn't afford to mail them.

b) find out how many are in your child's unit/div/squadron etc. I personally think that is the better way to go. I can handle Ben's squadron no problem.

c) I am more of an ocassional poster here as my son isn't on the ship the whole time. We would need every Lincoln mom involved. Can't sew? they could donate money and/or fabric or pillowcases for decorating. Who can contact ALL the moms to see if they are "on board" with this?

d) Who can contact the schools in the Everett area? Someone who lives near the ship needs to do that.

e) think long and hard about you can do personally. This is a time consuming job-more than you can imagine.

f) put the project to prayer and see what the Lord says to you about it.

IN closing, let me say this. I know I sound not overly encouraging, but this is a huge task. I can see the possibility becasue we are discussing this in Feb not Oct. But Jackie said it right, "if we can't do it well, then we can't do it at all."

I look forward to see what you all decide.

[dollyslaffn]

Okay,let's see if I have this straight : If we can get twenty mothers to sew about 225 pillowcases,that will be enough for the entire ship. SO... if the ladies who can't sew divide the fund-raising among them selves,go to the schools and get the NJROTC involved in some car washes and things,and contact the home ec depts at the schools,the fund-raising Moms can be putting collection jars at the office, etc,doing interviews,setting up donation sites and buying gift cards for a Walmart or nationwide fabric store to mail to the sewing moms to get the material,then also sending a Walmart prepaid money card to cover the postage.Just use the money card like a debit card at the post office. That way, each mother can do what she is best suited for and contribute her part,and the sewing moms can dedicate themselves fully to the task at hand. maybe even have each sewing mom "sponsored" by two or three fund-raising moms,and let's all see just what we CAN do!

[StephanieAlice]

I can get us a 501c
We need to first establish ourselves as an organization. So we will need to discuss the details of that and we will need at least two signatures to get that which is the 501a
I can contact schools because I live here in Everett
I can work on contacting family of sailors here in Everett as well
As far as the coordinating...I agree that it will be a huge responsibility. I would be interested in co-coordinating this with someone as it seems you Sue are very busy. Good for you!!!