Is your child deployed? My Heart's Desire

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

It has long been on my mind and heart that I would love to adopt the children and their unit of my fabulous Heads at Ease crew.

Sewing is hard work and can be costly. There are so many steps involved in the making of these pillowcases and most people don't realize that. We buy the fabric, then wash, dry and iron it. Then we cut it and sometimes that is time consuming if we are doing a pieced one. Then we finally get to sew it. Then we print off a notecard or label to put inside and after all that, it's finally ready to be mailed.

If we do our children as well as their unit, we will have many contacts. And many sailors will be blessed in the process.

How to choose who to do? Here's a few ideas that I am tossing out:
1. They must be deployed - out of the United States.
2. They must be willing to be a contact person for their unit/cube or find someone who is willing to handle the mailing.
3. We would need some information about the unit- the male/female ratio for one.
4. Finally, how long they will be out. Like a 1 month sea trial wouldn't count. My son always tells me to not mail anything to him while on those.

I am VERY interested in your thoughts on this. So please share. I already have Donna K's son on a deployment for 2010 and told her we would do them as soon as we get information. Judi R has an Army contact for us as well. Same thing, waiting for information.

I want to handle this in a fair manner, so please share your thoughts. I see that Dori touched on this in the guidelines, so I am going to transfer those great thoughts to here.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

From Dori aka DC:

Sue, Given that these are a labor of love, I would like to see priority for deployed loved ones of the HAE group. When we adopt the loved one, we will try to adopt the unit. The reason I say, try is because the size of the unit may prohibit adoption of the whole unit. The second priority I would like for adopt would be loved ones of N4M members.

My logic of having these two groups as priority is that sending pillowcases becomes an expensive project. Not only do we have the cost of material, we have the cost of mailing. In addition, there is a cost of labor. Now don't tell me it is free because as an economist, I will assure you it is NOT free. Our time is valuable whether we are being paid for it or not. Two granddaughters, and perhaps five, will not get their stockings this year because I chose to do pillowcases and I loved it! In addition, when you are sewing a lot, sewing machines will need maintenance. And oh yes, there is the cost of utilities. These are miniscule BUT they add up.

Second point of logic is that we want to continue to have support of sewers and contributors of fabric and money. Everyone whose loved one benefited from our project will be inclined to want to help on a continuing basis. That may sound mercenary but I view it as being pragmatic.

I agree with your philosophy of "all or none." In other words, if we cannot handle a whole unit, then we will not adopt the unit at all.

This brings me to another point. We have adopted three ships and they are stressful because of the numbers. I think, in general, we should not adopt a ship. That does not mean that we will not adopt units on a ship. Those are manageable. As I have told you, I suspect if we adopt one unit, we will probably get requests for more. That is great and unit by unit we may cover a ship.

Most of all, I believe we need to keep this project an enjoyable one. There are several things that will help do this. One is to keep the groups a manageable size. I would prefer to do many smaller units, i.e., 50 or less, than one huge unit. It is easier to coordinate this. Second, I think all of the sewers should start working on a "stash." I don't have one but I am going to make it a goal to set aside a few each month to build up a stash. Hopefully, I will get to the point that I am only shipping out of the stash. This will allow all of us to know for sure how many we can provide because we already have them. I have always committed to fewer than I think I will actually do. It is much easier to go up than to let you down. Third, we need to come up with ways to reduce the workload on you. You have done a fantastic job but there has to be ways we can help

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

thanks Maryellen. I have a large box that I put in the pillowcases from my Tucson crew. and just pull from there when there is a need.

So moms, if your child is deployed, let us know.

[B's Proud Mama]

Great guidelines and message points. I fully agree with the fact they should be on deployment. This project gives them a piece of home they can't get otherwise.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

I hear you proud Mama.

[Barbara (Derek's Mom)]

I think you have a great idea even if my son will be staying stateside for the next 3 years!! I have material waiting to be sewn for my stash!

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

We can do our own children anytime we want, but as a group I do think we should stick to deployed. I mailed to the 3 injured on Molly's special hugs yesterday. We can do those too. Wouldn't it be something if we could get every deployed person a pillowcase,.

Ladies, thank you for all of your help!

[DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor]

Lorelai, this is exactly the type of group we want. Will you son be willing to serve as contact and distributor of the pillowcases? That is critical for us.

Donations of both fabric and money is welcome. We are not a non-profit but they both go for a very good cause. You might enjoy picking out some of the fabric for your son's platoon. Take a look at the pillowcase instructions. The first part of that deals with picking the fabric. That would be useful for you. Also take a look at some of the other discussions so that you can see some of the pillowcases made. As you can see, there is a lot of variation in how they are put together and in the fabrics used.

Welcome aboard! join in the main discussion group. I think you will find some great people there.

[Lorelai]

My son would be totally willing to be the contact and distributor of the pillowcases. He knows as a Corpsman that the mental and emotional well-being of his men is even more important sometimes than the physical - cuts and wounds can heal with time and a bandage but it's the emotional life of the Marine on deployment that needs to be looked after with great care. Keeping the morale up for these men is so important. My son is a great listener and he is their brother, friend, and spiritual advisor in his role as Corpsman as well as being their medical support.

I'll look at the pillowcase instructions and see about picking out some fabric before the New Year. We'll go from there. Cool! I'm also going to send birthday cards to all the guys who have a birthday while they are on deployment. I keep trying to come up with things to do so this is great. The pillowcases will be a wonderful surprise for the guys. :D

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

Lorelai, I call them a permanent hug. The name "heads at ease" came from another Navy mom last January when I did my first group. When they go to sleep, it will help the troops remember that someone is praying and caring about them.

We will look forward to doing them! Lots of moms have shopped for fabric and shipped to various crew members. We enjoy that alot cause different parts of the country has different prints.

If you would pm me your email address, I will also forward the HAE letter that my friend wrote.

[Lorelai]

OK I sent you a friend request. Once it's approved I can PM you my e-mail address. My son is home on leave so I'm thinking of taking him to help me pick out the fabric. He knows his men so he should know what would make them smile. :D

[DC - G'mother of My Fav Sailor]

That's a great idea. Then we will have an opportunity to see the types of fabrics the soldiers would enjoy. Many of ours are made with bands so that they can each be different. So think in terms of things that would go together as well.

[Sue-Pillowcase lady]

that is a great idea. I dragged my son to the fabric store last Sept. He moaned about it, but then picked out a couple of pieces.