Community Service
Community Service is an important part or our organization.
If you are able to help with one of our many projects,
please don't hesitate to let us know. Contact either
your neighborhood group leader or our Chapter Community
Service person Eleanor at communityservice@asgspacecoast_org
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ASG Announces the Recipient for the 2010 Community Service Project
The American Sewing Guild is proud to announce the selection of the U.S. Troops Drawstring Bag as our 2010 national community service project. A project of Operation Care Package, a non-profit organization that receives, fills and mails the drawstring bags to deployed service men and women from all braches of the armed forces. You can learn more about them at www.operationcarepa ckages.org.
Please note: ASG headquarters will not be receiving or shipping the bags. We will not have a drop off area for them during the 2010 conference. The bags are to be mailed directly to Operation Care Package and can be shipped at any time to:
Operation Care Package
611 Wilcox St.
Joliet, IL. 60435
ASG Members, please report the number of bags sent to your chapter representative who will be maintaining a count for ASG.
A drawstring bag pattern (created for this project) has been designed by Laura Martell of The Creative Thimble and you can access it from a link on the Community Service page of the ASG website or here: bag pattern.
Operation Care Package has requested that we enclose a note of appreciation thanking the recipient for their service. Once again, our friends at ScrapSmart have stepped up to support our project by designing a special appreciation label and a card that can be used to include a personal note with your bag(s). As soon as this is available, members will be alerted and a link will be available from our website.
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New Smyrna Sew n Sews Community Service
The third Wednesday of the month is a happy day for ladies from the New Smyrna Beach Sew n’ Sews.
That is the day they mend and sew for the residents and staff of Ocean View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. They arrive in the morning with their sewing machines and supplies and sit and sew in the second floor activities room till all the items are repaired. The idea began from a conversation at a monthly meeting of the Sew n’ Sews. The Sew n’ Sews are a neighborhood group of the Titusville Space Coast Chapter of the American Sewing Guild. The American Sewing Guild, Inc. (ASG) is a not-for-profit education based organization, founded in 1978. ASG is comprised of 136 chapters with over 1,000 community and special interest groups and neighborhood groups within the chapter umbrella. ASG’s over 20,000 members promote the mission to “advance sewing as an art and life skill” by providing a network of sewing education and support for sewing enthusiasts of all skill levels. ASG strives to preserve the sewing arts in America and promotes community engagement through service projects. The American Sewing Guild shares sewing arts with new generations and being key participants in both consumer and industry-wide events that promote sewing. Ruth contacted Stella at Ocean View to see if there was a need for mending and sewing for the residents. Stella and Karen agreed that there was a need. A day and time was set, Ruth and Carolyn arrived ready to sit and sew for the day. Karen coordinates the collection of the items to be repaired, she greets the sewing ladies with a cart to help carry their sewing machines and supplies to the activities room. The cart is stocked with coffee, tea and a snack. The cart also contains the items to be repaired, buttons to sew on, rips and tears to mend, pants to hem and other minor repairs. The ladies set up and get to work, staff and residents stop and say “Hi” , making it a pleasant day of community service for the ladies from the New Smyrna Beach Sew n’ Sews.
Submitted by Carolyn Wehmeyer |
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 Brevard Bobbins
The Brevard Bobbins participates in various community service projects. This year we have made
anti-ouch pouches for the Titusville Cancer Center. Walker bags have been donated to the Center, along with
the visiting nurses as well as giving them to friends and family members. A custom window treatment shop
has become a donor of material providing us with wonderful/colorful fabrics to make the walker bags. Another
project we have helped with is the Ronald McDonald pillows cases for the National Convention Community
Service Project. These projects had 17 members spending at least 306 hours of committed time. Some
members have helped the Girl Scouts earn their merit badges in sewing and community service by
teaching/assisting in sewing of cosmetic bags for the women’s shelter.
The Bobbins biggest community service project was to become “Sewing Angels” for Give Kids The
World Village (GKTW) located in Kissimmee, Florida in 2006. “Angels” are the volunteers with invisible wings
that bring the village to life. The village is a 70-acre, non-profit resort that creates magical memories for
children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. GKTW provides accommodations at its whimsical
resort, donated attractions tickets, meals, and more for a week-long, cost-free fantasy vacation. No one is
ever turned away. To find out more about GKTW, check out their web site: www.gktw.org.
Our group has taken on the task of sewing 500 covers a month for the “Wish Pillows”. These pillows
come from the Wish Machine located in the Wish Castle at the village. Children put their wishes in the machine
and the pillow is filled with these wishes. The Bobbins group purchases the flannel, novelty print fabric for the
pocket, and thread to continue this project. This means we have to purchase 1,500 yards of plain cozy flannel
and 500 yards of novelty prints for the pockets for the entire year. We can make four pillows out of the yard of
flannel and 12 pockets from the novelty print.
The wish pillow cover project is funded in many ways. We talk about our project to family, friends, and
co-workers. We contact businesses for donations, write Grants, have displays in various places, have
newspapers in to see our community service sewing days, and the list goes on. This is a collective effort by all
the members of the Brevard Bobbins neighborhood group, “Bobbinettes” (as we call ourselves). This has
been quite a task as you can imagine with the cost of material today.
Every week we get together and spend 3 hours sewing on these pillow covers. This year so far we
have provided 4,746 wish pillow covers. The “sewing angels” have spent 1,780 hours on assembling these
covers. Twelve to 15 “sewing angels” show up to help out. Those who cannot sew help by spreading the
word, obtaining needed funds, and providing material that is needed. The Bobbins have spent over 2,000
hours so far this year in community service sewing and should be very proud of their efforts. A Big “THANK
YOU” is sent to all our members for your continued support and help with all our projects. As GKTW says---
you are truly “SEWING ANGELS”.
Submitted by: Mary Ann Sheppard, Bobbins Community Service
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 Pillow Cases for Ronald McDonald House |
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100 pillow cases will be headed to Ronald McDonald House as the National ASG Community Service Project for this year. A big thank you to Rosemary Easley for her organizational and prep work. She purchased some, and washed and ironed all the material. She, with some assistance from Diane Gay, Peg Pucci, Ellie Rissel, and Kathy Matura got them cut and ready to sew prior to the June Chapter Community Service UFO. She had completed 63 prior to the start of the UFO day June 13th. All that were cut out were completed at the event and our president took them to be delivered at the convention. Thanks also to Carol Hall who took 10 at our Bobbins meeting and completed them, plus attended the UFO to help. A GREAT BIG THANKS TO ROSEMARY and all the rest of you who gave of your time toward this community service effort for National.
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The American Sewing Guild, Inc. (ASG) is a not-for-profit education based organization, founded in 1978. ASG is comprised of 136 chapters with over 1,000 community and special interest groups within the chapter umbrella. ASG's over 20,000 members promote the mission to "advance sewing as an art and life skill" by providing a network of sewing education and support for sewing enthusiasts of all skill levels, serving as preservers of the sewing arts in America, promoting community engagement through service projects, sharing sewing arts with new generations and being key participants in both consumer and industry-wide events that promote sewing activity.
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