Original article at: http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/cleveland/news/article_7d70cf41-4e52-5441-b7e7-609e2db8f2b8.html
A service project by a local church will benefit more than a thousand disadvantaged people in surrounding areas for weeks and months to come.
Nearly 300 women and girls recently participated in `A Day of Service’ at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, donating food, making homemade articles and packaging donated items into laundry, hygiene and baby care kits that were given to local charitable organizations.
Sally Lindburg supervises the 10 congregation area in a voluntary capacity, acting as the Houston Texas East Stake Women’s Relief Society President. “We are united first and foremost because of our faith in Jesus Christ” she said in her opening address. “He is our leader and our perfect example of how we are to serve one another.”
Lindburg said the idea started out as a simple clothing exchange. “And other organizations started saying they wanted to get involved and it just grew from there,” she said. “Then Saturday everybody came together and served together. It was just amazing.”
With the goal of contributing to charities throughout the ten congregation area, some women spent the day sewing and tying quilts, making laundry, baby care and hygiene kits or sorting and folding clothes for the Baytown Homeless Shelter. Others sewed and stuffed silk dolls for the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston while some stuffed backpacks with school supplies for school-aged children at TexasTime Family Crisis Center in Humble and various other shelters.
Women sorted and packaged non-perishable food items they had brought to be donated to the Liberty Food Bank. Another group sewed adult bibs for Alzheimer’s patients at Autumn Grove Cottage in Humble while young women and elementary-aged children made baby blankets, burp cloths and wash cloths for the Dayton Pregnancy Center.
Lindburg said they went to several organizations to learn their needs, made a list, sent lists around to fill the needs and people donated the items that would be divided, sorted and packaged during the event.
“When donations started pouring in, we exceeded our goals in every area,” she said. “Our goal was to make 1,000 laundry kits, we made 1,500 and this is not counting the bottles of liquid laundry detergent we gave away. Our goal was to have 200 backpacks stuffed with school supplies to give out, we donated 370. In every area, we went above and beyond all of our expectations.”
Brenda Devereaux of Dayton serves as the president over the children’s organization in her Liberty congregation. “It’s such a wonderful cause to help so many and to share what we have,” she said. “We have so much and we just take it for granted so it’s wonderful that we can give of our abundance. As we give away, we receive so much in return.”
Dayton resident, Rita Clark, serves as the 2nd counselor in the Women’s Stake Relief Society presidency. “This service project was very successful,” she said. “We made goals and we exceeded those goals. It was very humbling to see everyone’s support.”
Patrina Pelton-Smith, Executive director of Baytown’s New Horizon Family Center, a domestic violence and sexual assault agency said they were overwhelmed with the extent of the donations. “We were able to put the items to very good use,” she said. “We have already begun distributing the items so we know clients will be able to benefit from these donations.”
Judy Cox, Executive Director of FamilyTime Crisis and Counseling Center said their non-profit organization in Humble has been the recipient of the local Latter-day Saints related service projects for the past 10 years.
“The ladies who come to our center arrive with nothing but their children and the clothes on their backs,” she said. “When we are able to give them these things, it may be the only thing they have that’s theirs. When we give them a quilt, it’s theirs to keep. We never know how many children we’ll have. The population changes hourly. We have 10 kids this morning. We may have 20 kids by tomorrow.”
“This wonderful organization made over 40 clothes protectors for our Alzheimer’s residents,” said Theresa Johnston, outreach coordinator for Autumn Grove Cottage in Humble. “Helping our residents maintain their dignity is crucial. Wearing these clothes protectors for eating or for doing crafts is important to keep our residents from soiling their clothing. When they asked us, we told them we needed 16. We are overwhelmed because we got much more than that. This will definitely help us tremendously.”
Barbers Hill School District Assistant Superintendent of Technology James Banks, supervises the 10 congregation area in a voluntary capacity, acting as the Houston Texas East Stake President.
“I was pleased with the overall outcome,” he said. “I thought it was a tremendous opportunity to involve all the members of our Stake and the community.”
