Quilters piece together aid for Joplin

OCEAN PINES -- The devastation was felt more than 1,200 miles away, and more than a month ago. But the tornado that ravaged Joplin, Mo., is still on the minds of some Ocean Pines residents.

The community's quilters guild, Quilters By the Sea, met this week to sew dresses for some of the youngest victims of the natural disaster.

"It's an outreach any guild would do," said Diane Sparzak, a member of the quilting club.

She and her fellow quilters just finished making a dozen dresses for elementary school aged girls in Joplin who may have lost all of their belongings to the tornado that in May killed more than a hundred people. Following a simple pattern the quilters used their sewing talents to create the dresses out of colorful fabrics so that girls affected by the tornado will have a new dress to wear on the first day of school this August.

Sparzak, a member of Quilters by the Sea who also belongs to another guild in Bel Air, said the dressmaking initiative began with a quilter in Kansas and has, through the Internet, been taken up by guilds throughout the country.

"All of us have come together," Sparzak said. She added that with each dress, the quilters have included a note wishing the student a happy school year.

For boys affected by the tornado, Sparzak said Quilters by the Sea would be purchasing polo shirts and shorts, thinking boys' fashions might not run too close to handmade patterned outfits.

In addition to helping the children impacted by the tornado, the local quilting club also donated $200 to Joplin's own quilting guild, as it lost everything it had as well, guild president Sue Coleburn said.

The humanitarian efforts by Quilters by the Sea are just the latest of several ways the community group tries to help others. The roughly 90 women who make up the club have already made 135 quilts this year for local organizations such as Diakonia, Women Supporting Women and the Berlin Nursing Home, among others.

"We like to support out community and the needs of others," Coleburn said, "anytime we can help."

cpolk@dmg.gannett.com

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A Mom's Year » The Hundred Dresses Book and Project

By Eleanor Estes? It’s a little gem of a book that packs a big message about having the courage to stand up for what’s right. My book club read it years ago, but it wasn’t until this week that I read it to my kids. We read the book, talked about it, and then started making 100 dresses of our own. “Started” being the operative word here; it’ll take a while to get to 100 dresses. But we’re off to a good start with 16!

If you’d like to give this project a try, the first thing to do is read the book. Then spend some time talking about it. Ask your kids if they’ve ever been made fun of or if they’ve made fun of someone else. Have they watched as someone got teased? Ask them why Peggy made fun of Wanda and why Wanda made up the story about the 100 dresses. Ask why Maddie didn’t defend Wanda. Ask what they think about the letter that Peggy and Maddie wrote to Wanda. What should the letter have said? Do they think Maddie will keep her promise never “to stand by and say nothing again?” Why, or why not? (Oh, gosh, the textbook editor in me is coming out…sorry!) One last thing: if your kids are old enough, you can point out that Estes wrote The Hundred Dresses , so I got out one of my old Princess Diana books and attempted to copy some of her dresses. But, really, if you can draw at all you’ll be fine. The nice thing about children is they’re easily impressed by adult drawing skills. I handed the sketches over to the kids as I went and they got busy with their watercolors. A nice surprise was that Will joined in for a bit.