First House Block submitted by Nancy Friesen, OregonBy Cathryn Clinton
AKRON, Pa. -- Quilt squares depicting houses are being used to raise money to rebuild homes in a cyclone-torn area of Bangladesh.
Throughout 2007, house blocks or quilt squares depicting houses were collected for projects for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) 2008 relief sales. The house blocks are being used to create quilts, wall hangings and other textile projects that will be sold or auctioned at relief sales.
Proceeds from these house block projects will help rebuild homes in an area of Bangladesh that was hit hard by Cyclone Sidr when it made landfall on Nov. 15, claiming more than 3,400 lives and destroying many houses.
To date, over 230 house blocks have been collected in the United States and Canada.
This house block project began after the 2006 "Share Your Heart" effort which collected heart quilt blocks. The project brought in more than $67,928 for MCC, according to Harriet Berg, relief sale coordinator.
Last spring, Phyllis Schmidt, a contributor to the project, was intrigued by the idea of the house blocks and decided to present it to her women's group at the Greensburg Mennonite Church in Greensburg, Kansas.
But she didn't get the chance. On May 4, 2007 a tornado tore through the town. While Schmidt's house in the country was spared, the tornado destroyed the homes of the other women in the group.
Schmidt's granddaughter, 8-year-old Hannah Funk cried when she visited Greensburg and saw the destruction. All the familiar sights including the grain elevator, the church and even the main street stores were gone.
Hannah loves to draw and wanted to help her grandmother, so she drew an imaginary house for Phyllis to use in a quilt block.
A Bangladesh traveling quilt was inspired by Colleen Graber of the Mennonite World Relief Sale in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. During last year's sale, Graber led children in creating house blocks in the children's activity center.
The traveling quilt will go to relief sales to be used as a symbol while information on the Bangladesh house building project is shared during the auctions. Donations are then taken from the floor and will go toward the project.
To learn more about the house block project watch for updates on http://mcc.org/reliefsales/quiltprojects/. For a schedule of 2008 relief sales in the United States and Canada, click on http://mcc.org/reliefsales/.
Cathryn Clinton is a writer for Mennonite Central Committee.
Permission to post this article received from:
Ed Nyce
Media and Education Coordinator
Mennonite Central Committee
phone: (717) 859-1151 #282
email: ebn@mcc.org
website: http://mcc.org/reliefsales/
5 comments:
They are helping the Bangladesh people here in your article, and if it wasn't for them here in Greensburg we wouldn't have much of anything...
When I first moved back in 2001, they were also the only ones who invited me to their church...
wonderful people.
Yes, they help people wherever the need is. I know my Aunt and Uncle have been wherever they could drive their motor home. In the hills of Kentucky and down to Mexico. They were in Oklahoma building homes with safe rooms after a tornado went through several years back and we went to visit them. I'll have to post a picture or two of that visit.
We always attend a Relief Sale or two each year; they are huge events here. The MCC is the only group that I trust to use my donations in an honest way.
What a wonderful thing to blog about!
Alice - I agree about the donation part. They're the only group that I know of that doesn't take the top portion of your donations to pay people to manage it all.
Hi, GGF! I think it's wonderful that the children want to get involved in these things too.
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