Nikole Babb
nbabb@cherryroad.com
The First United Methodist Church of El Dorado hosted a group of 25 women from five churches as they created products for charities by hand to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy and enjoy camaraderie with each other.
This was the third year the Day of Service was organized on January 20, donating to four charities with varying needs. Shelley Shipman, member of Sew Blessed, a sewing group formed by the First United Methodist Church, says the women enjoy gathering each year to remember Martin Luther King Jr., and to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.
“We just want to give back to the community and people around the world, while being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ,” said Shipman.
Twenty-five women came to the Day of Service event from by the First United Methodist Church of El Dorado, El dorado Trinity United Methodist Church, Towanda Community Church, First Untied Methodist Church of Potwin, and the Rose hill United Methodist Church. They were organized into groups of seamstresses, cloth cutters, and organizers.
Together the women cut, sew and put together 40 reusable/washable female hygiene pads to sen to African missionaries, seven personal cloth totes/bags for the Butler County Family Life Center & Safehouse, 75 hygiene kits for EmberHope foster care and 50 head scarves to send to a Haiti orphanage. The ladies worked from 9am-2pm to create the items, only breaking for lunch.
“When you have nine women sewing and that many cutting, it all goes pretty quickly!” said Shipman.
The group is generally made up of women only each year while men are always welcome to join. The tasks include sewing, ironing, cloth cutting, packing and sorting. The Sew Blessed group will continue to meet outside of MLK Jr. Day on every first and third Monday of each month to continue to sew for charities. In the past they’ve sewn quilts for the homeless shelter RISE, various items for the Safehouse, and even fabric glasses case to send overseas. The women will sew more female hygiene pads as well.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was well-known for his position as a Baptist minister and more for his activism in the civil rights movement from 1955 until he was assassinated in 1968. At the age of 35 he was the youngest man to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, which he then donated the prize money of $54,123 to the civil rights movement.
King accepted a leadership position of one of the first nonviolent demonstrations in the United States known as the bus boycott, which lasted 382 days. During this time King experienced great discrimination and personal abuse, including his home being bombed. He was arrested upwards of 20 times during his time of activism and planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters, directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people where he delivered his address, “l Have a Dream”, and became well known as a national leader for American black citizens and a world leader for peace and equality.
He was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1963 and awarded five honorary degrees. While standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, King was tragically assassinated. He was scheduled to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city.
“So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” – Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream” speech.
King’s mark on the civil rights movement, black history in America and the world will forever be remembered fondly and with great pride.
