by Cori Hilsgen
news@thenewsleaders.com
Local resident Joyce Stock has been busy sewing dresses for people in Haiti. She and her sister, Janice Stock of St. Cloud, have sewn more than 200 dresses and 30 skirts this year.
Joyce said it began when her daughter and son-in-law, Ginny and Dale Anderson, and their son and Joyce’s grandson, Eli, visited Haiti on a mission trip in April.
Ginny came back with the idea of making cotton dresses for children in Haiti.
The idea came from the Women of Peace who belong to Peace Lutheran Church, Cold Spring. These women had sewn more than 100 dresses from pillowcases, which were delivered by the April mission team to Haiti.
Ginny asked Joyce if she would be interested in making some of the dresses.
“Mom is an excellent seamstress and she said, ‘I can make some dresses, but do I have to use pillowcases?'” Ginny said.
“Anytime you can do some mission work, it’s just really wonderful,” Joyce said.
Joyce mentioned the idea to some friends and other quilters throughout the area who also sew.
It didn’t take long before fabric, bias tape, lace and other supplies were donated. Joyce, who also sews prayer blankets for the Church of St. Joseph Catholic church, asked her sister, Janice Stock, if she would like to help sew dresses.
Janice agreed to help with the sewing. Joyce cut all of the fabric and the two women sewed and sewed some more. They now have totes packed full with the dresses and skirts, to be transferred to bags and taken to Haiti in February.
Joyce said they changed the pattern of the dresses, which are sewn in sizes 2-4, 6-8, 10-12 and 14, so they now have elastic instead of drawstrings and also have shoulder ties. The skirts have elastic waists and are mid-calf length.
“What is so impressive, is so many people are so generous and happy to know the things they donated can be used to help someone in need,” Joyce said. “This might be the only new dress a little girl has ever had the chance to wear.”
The Anderson family, whose members live in Cold Spring, and others will bring the dresses with them and distribute them in Haiti.
“It’s a wonderful way to contribute something people need and to keep things out of our landfills,” Joyce said.
Joyce and Janice, who are married to brothers, also recently helped sell donated items at a craft sale held Nov. 5 at Rocori High School. Items sold included handmade wooden bowls, card holders, banks and more made by Janice’s husband, Chuck. Also donated were hand-sewn baby pajamas, bibs, tote bags, jewelry and more.
Money earned from the sale will be used by the next group from the area going on a mission to Haiti to help fund a school well project.
Ginny, a nurse at Oak Ridge Elementary School in Sartell, said the first mission trip to Haiti came about because her son’s friend, Chase Smetana, whose mother led the April trip, came to school and said he was going to Haiti.
Ginny’s son, Eli, 16, came home and mentioned the trip. After discussing it, the family decided they should go and traveled on their first mission trip this past April.
“We felt it was something we needed to do,” Ginny said. “Why wouldn’t we do it?”
She said four 15-year-old boys went with their parents on the April trip.
Ginny, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, said as a cancer survivor the trip was on her bucket list. She said the trips are organized for the people who are going on the trip and accommodations are made for age and abilities.
“I didn’t know if I could do it, but I did it,” she said. “It was the hardest and coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
Many of the people who went on the April trip are also planning to go on the February trip. This time the Andersons’ other son, Erik, 22, will also travel to Haiti.
Ginny said after the last hurricane hit Haiti, Eli said they had to go back to help.
“The experience was like nothing I had before,” Eli said. “It made me appreciate what I have compared to what they have. I’ll never look in the refrigerator again and say there’s nothing to eat, because in reality things could be a lot worse.”
Cold Spring residents, Karla and Shane Smetana, own Flexible Pipe Tool Co. located on Pearl Drive in St. Joseph. Karla was the April Haiti trip team leader and said with the backing of Peace Lutheran Church she will again lead the February trip.
Karla made her first mission trip in 2014 and she said it truly changed her life. The group worked with a Minnesota-based mission organization called World Wide Village. The non-profit organization is based out of St. Paul and has been sponsoring trips to Haiti for more than 15 years.
Karla said the organization allows Americans a chance to donate their time and resources and work alongside the Haitian people toward improving their lives. WWV also allows people to sponsor students for a Christian education.
She said the goal of the first mission trip was to work on a sustainable egg-production facility, a chicken coop, because Haiti imports more than 4.5 million eggs a day from the Dominican Republic. Wanting to tap into an existing market for eggs, the facility was to provide employment for a few of the local people, keep Haitian currency in their own country and provide an on-going source of income. The chicken coop was a success, but not in egg production. They now are raising fryers instead.
When she led the trip in April, Karla said 16 people, including her son Chase Smetana, traveled with her to Haiti.
The team included five nurses who offered health clinics to the women of Haiti, as well as a mental-health practitioner who was able to help counsel a woman whose husband had recently died in an accident.
The teenage boys of the team dug holes into a rocky hillside with pick axes for a fence that will protect future crops.
Others from the team built a water shed which now allows the water director (Feto) to manage the use of a newly constructed area water well. Feto can now sit in the shade and control the flow of the water for the area, which ensures the sustainability of the well.
Others on the mission helped out at one of the local churches painting the benches. They also spent time building relationships with the people of Williamson. Members of the team now choose to sponsor 10 children who were previously not attending school because their families could not afford to send them. They are all enrolled in school with uniforms and books and are receiving at least one healthy meal each school day.
The 2017 mission trip group plans to distribute the dresses that were made by Joyce Stock, Janice Stock, Women of Peace and others.
“When we distribute the dresses, we are very strategic in our plan,” Karla said. “We do try to get a photo op of the dresses being given to a few little girls by members of our team. We as Americans feel a sense of accomplishment and joy in seeing the girls excited about their gift.”
However, she said the main concern of WWV is not to have Americans come to Haiti and “fix” things. The goal is to work alongside the Haitians and help them achieve the goals they have for themselves to become sustainable on their own.
Most of the dresses will be left with WWV and some of the leaders of the local areas they work with in Williamson and Luly. The dresses are then distributed by other Haitians.
Karla said this fosters Haitians helping Haitians instead of a dependence on gifts from Americans.
The main goal of the February mission trip is to bring more than 350 school children in Williamson clean drinking water. Currently, there is an old hand-dug well that usually is dry and when there is water, it’s not clean.
The plan is to dig a new well near the school yard that will allow the children to drink clean water freely during the school day. The well is estimated to cost $8,000.
The “Peace2Haiti 2017” mission team is hoping to raise $20,000. The new well at the school will cost $8,000 and $12,000 will be used to continue work on a clinic building and a trade school that were started last year. Karla said any donations are appreciated.
She also asked for supportive prayers for the team.
If you are willing and able to support this project, visit www.worldwidevillage.org/teams. Just put the dollar amount you are able to commit to and in the “Team Member Name” box, enter “Well 4 Williamson” so they know which project to apply the money to.
You can also send your donation to: World Wide Village, 616 Sims Ave., St. Paul, Minn. 55130 with “Well 4 Williamson” on the “memo” line.
Janice Stock (left) and Joyce Stock hold two of the more than 200 dresses the two women have sewn for girls living in Haiti. Joyce’s daughter, Ginny Anderson, and others from a mission team will deliver the dresses to Haiti in February.
Chase Smetana, 15, sits with school boys from Haiti during a mission trip led by his mother, Karla Smetana in April.
A young girl from Haiti holds one of many dresses sewn locally and delivered on a mission trip in April 2016. A mission team will deliver more than 200, locally sewn, dresses to Haiti again in this February.
Members of the April 2016 Haitian team included five nurses who taught women’s health education classes. Pictured (left to right) are Carla Bieniek, (front, grey shirt), Ginny Anderson and Lori Ackerson.
