"Love is the Only Gold" February 2018

Love is the only Gold          ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Barbara, Carol, Carolyn and Maureen working on Valentines.

Ardis, Maureen, Carolyn, Barbara and Kathy

On Monday, February 8th we met at Kathy's home to work on Valentines for the lovely residents in our local Assisted Living Centers in Elk Ridge, Payson and Santaquin.. 

Barbara, Carol, Maureen, Carolyn, Ardis, Jesse, Brittany, Kathy and Sandy all worked together to make over 150 unique Valentines

 We made home-made Valentines for seven local Assisted Living Centers.  These Valentines are given to each of the residents on Valentines Day.

Carolyn splitting up the Valentines into bags for each Assisted Living Center

 A few of the many Valentines we made today

Carolyn, Barbara, Kathy, Jesse and Carol 

Carolyn, Sandy, Ardis

We collected food for a new "Little Free Pantry" that is by the city office building in Payson.  (It's similar to a Little Free Library).  It was started by an Elk Ridge resident, Erin M.  Erin read an article about a woman in Arkansas who started the movement.  Erin knew that was something she wanted to do.  "I think sometimes you think helping other people is complicated and kind of hard," she said.  "I'm not going to go out and start my own nonprofit or whatever, but building a little cupboard and putting some food in it is something that people can do." 

 People struggling with food insecurity can use the Little Free Pantry.  

We also collected cans of Ready to Serve soup for the  Food and Care Coalition in Provo who serve homeless and other families who are needing food.

   

January 2018 If you are making mistakes, then you are making new things

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. 

Because if you are making mistakes, 

then you are making new things, trying new things, 

learning, living, pushing yourself, 

changing yourself, changing your world. 

You're doing things you've never done before, 

and more importantly, you're doing something. ~ Neil Gaiman

 Renae H, a dear friend who moved to a different state made each of us one of these lovely "We Can Because We Care" journals.  Each journal is unique with lovely quotes, pictures and plenty of white space to track things we do to show the WE CAN!  
THANK YOU, Renae!

Ardis, KD, Maureen, Jesse Kathy, Brittany and RaeLee

 January 2018 is the beginning of our 10th year of We Can!  It's going to be a great year with lots of good service opportunities!

Our first meeting was held Monday, January 8th at Sandy's home.  KD, Vila, Ardis, RaeLee, Maureen, Brittany, Jesse, Carolyn, Kathy, and Sandy all worked together putting together Hygiene kits for the Refugee Center as well as making Baby Burp Clothes.

RaeLee, Jesse, Maureen Vila, KD

Carolyn cutting out more baby burp clothes

Brittany putting together some Hygiene Kits while RaeLee, KD and Ardis sew the baby burp clothes

RaeLee, KD, Ardis and Carolyn

Vila keeps us organized and in supplies

Jesse turning the fabric so it can be ironed and stitched again

Kathy, Maureen, Brittany, Carolyn work together to assemble Hygiene Kits

Kathy, Maureen, Brittany, Carolyn and Jesse working on Hygiene Kits

The assembled kit

 Hygine kits have five bars of wrapped soap, a comb, a toothbrush, and toothpaste.  We assembled 49 kits that will go to "Lifting Hands International" an organization supporting refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Bangladesh.  

We were able to make lots of burp clothes - 53!

 The baby burp clothes are used locally by WIC which provides various services to Women, Infants and Children in Utah County.  We made 53 burp clothes today, which were delivered to the WIC office in Payson.

Ardis and  Carolyn delivered baby burp clothes and the hygiene kits a few days after our meeting.  They reported  going to a warehouse of Helping Hands International in Pleasant Grove.  We Can donated 49 hygiene kits.  Carolyn said, "We were so impressed with the warehouse.  Boxes were lined up ready to go to refugees in Jordan. They were waiting for a truck to pick them up that day.    Our hygiene kits were probably going to Bangeldesh  on the next shipment."

"We delivered 53 burp cloths to the WIC office in Payson.  They had just put out the last of the burp cloths they had. We also delivered many crotcheted baby hats that were made and donated by Natalie B.    The ladies there oooed and awwed at how cute our burp cloths were, and they loved the darling hats. (Thank you, Natalie)..  They said some of their clients have nothing at all for their babies.  Workers at both the warehouse and at the WIC office thanked us for the donations and asked that we pass our thanks along to the other ladies."