Busy Hands Create Lots More Bandages

Recent arrivals of bandages have included packages from:

Virginia in New Auburn, Wisconsin
Deborah in Chantilly, Virginia
Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Pennsylvania
Helen in King George, Virginia
B. in Alexandria, Virginia
Ann in Hillsborough, North Carolina
Julie in Reston, Virginia
Margery in Wever, Iowa
Tricia in St. Johns, Arizona
Denise in Wickenburg, Arizona
Suzie in Sammamish, Washington
Madeline at St. John's Church in Williamstown, Mass.

As of today our bandage total for this year is at 1,897.

My heart to yours with a Special Request -

Imagine that you have a disfiguring disease so horrible that no one wants to touch you or be around you. Banished out of the cities, you and your family are forced to the remote mountains to live with others suffering this horrible disease.

In your remote location, there is no medical care and your children cannot even attend school. You have no means of making a living. You live day to day hobbling around scrounging plants and roots with which to make a simple broth. You are a very humble people and rarely, if ever, ask for help.

Now image that a horrible storm, a typhoon, comes through your village and any shelter you had is destroyed, any belongings washed away!

This is the situation right now for many of the lepers in Vietnam. One of our main contacts who visits the remote leper villages reports that there are two main leper villages in Kontum province very heavily hit by the typhoon and resulting flood with water rising above the tops of their shelters.

In typical Vietnamese resiliency, they are praising that they survived the storm even though they know not from where their next meal will come. He reports that they are literally on the verge of starvation.

Your hours of tedious work on these precious bandages tells me that these unfortunate people already have your heart. I know that many of you can barely afford the cost of thread and shipping for the bandages but somehow manage to pull it together to do your part and then some.

Right now these lepers need food just to survive the rest of this stormy season. I have seen in person how they treasure a mere can of milk or bag of rice.

Most of you belong to a church or needlecraft group. Would you please give some thought to taking up a special offering to bring these precious people through this difficult time? The funds would be delivered by representatives of The D.O.V.E. Fund and used 100% to purchase food locally (in Vietnam) for delivery to these people.

Tax deductible donation checks should be made payable to “The D.O.V.E. Fund” (a 501(c)3 non-profit) with the notation “Bandage Brigade Storm Relief” and mailed to The D.O.V.E. Fund at PO Box 350741, Toledo, OH 43635.

In keeping with the celebratory spirit of this blog site, please send me e-mail details of any fund raising successes you have that we can share with others to know these needs are being met.

Blessings to all!

Mystery Package - I could use a bit more information

Just received a package of 17 beautiful bandages from one of you busy volunteers out there. The return address is listed as a PO box in Bemis Point, New York. There was no further information inside the package...just beautiful bandages.

If you are the one who sent the package, please send me an e-mail sgtstocker@gmail.com and identify yourself. I keep track of incoming bandages so I can send you a personal thank you and also keep you posted on happenings in the DOVE bandage brigade group.

To everyone else, please be sure to include inside your package a standard sheet of paper with your name, address and e-mail if you have one. It sure makes my job easier to have just a bit more information.

Please trust me, I am not selling or providing your information to anyone else.

Special Delivery of 70 Bandages

This past weekend we had a very special visit from our good friends Bruce and Elaine from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. Previously we had only "met" via internet and association with veterans' associations. This in person meeting had been a long time coming and was bitter sweet in that it was just a brief visit.

Bruce and Elaine have very big hearts for the people of Vietnam and each year spend up to 3 months there working in Vietnam on various charitable projects. They are getting ready to leave for Vietnam middle of December and are looking forward to their first Christmas in Vietnam. You can read more and follow along on their ventures at the link to the right titled "Journeys of The Heart".

We have especially appreciated their ongoing support of the Bandage Brigade since its infancy. They demonstrated their current support with the delivery of 70 more bandages from some of the other Canadian volunteers.

Key Club members learn community service skills by making leprosy bandages

Key Club is an international student led organization which provides its members with opportunities to provide service, build character and develop leadership.

Jefferson high school Key Club members in Edgewater, Colorado chose to knit and crochet tropical sore bandages for patients in Vietnam. During the 2008-2009 school years 25 Key club members and many teachers helped make 129 tropical bandages. They reported that this effort collectively took over 1300 hours to complete. Their Kiwanis sponsors came to the high school and taught students the skill they needed to complete the project. They spent many hours working as a group and individually to exceed their goal of 100 bandages.

Funds to make their project possible came from the Kiwanis Youth Opportunity Fund.

A special volunteer in Marshall, Minnesota

One of our most consistent volunteer knitters celebrated a milestone this past month. Dorothy is a Korean era Marine veteran who has contributed regularly since September 2007. Her bandages arrive almost monthly with a dozen at a time and we just celebrated her new total of 204 bandages...she refers to her efforts to keep her brain from stagnating...and we are proud to help her do that by keeping busy knitting.

Way to go Dorothy, keep up the good work!

Blessed with Bandages

We were in Ohio for the D.O.V.E. Fund annual retreat for just one week and my but the bandage arrivals piled up. Time to update you all on recent arrivals and announce a new total.

During the past few weeks bandages have arrived from:

Barbara in White Stone, Virginia
Agnes in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Angie in Gilbert, Arizona
Maureen of the St. Phillips Church in Fairfax, Virginia
Dianne and Juanita in Manorville, New York
Sue in Gleneden Beach, Oregon
Ilse of the Lutheran Women's Missionary League in College Point, N.Y.
Beth of the Trinity Stitchers in Sutton, W.V.
Dorothy in Marshall, Minnesota
Edith in Sarasota, Florida
Donna in Alexandria, Virginia
Caroline in Fishkill, New York
Leona in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
Rachelle of the Women of Westlake in Jackson, N.J.
Veronica in Leesburg, Virginia
Patricia in Mason Neck, Virginia
Deborah in Alexandria, Virginia
Jackie and J. P. in Corolla, North Carolina
Mary Ann in Weston, Massachusetts
Patricia in Cape Coral, Florida
Arty in Galena, Illinois
J. in Roseburg, Oregon
J. in Tucson, Arizona
"Knit One, Pray Two" at Eternal Shepperd Lutheran Church in Seneca, S.C.
Sonja of Kearsarge Community Presbyterian Church in New London, N.H.

Thanks to you all the total bandages on hand for delivery is now...1,783

When Should I Ship My Bandages?

This is one of the frequent questions that come my way for which there is no set answer.

Many of you send bandages as you make them, others as you fill a box and then many of you are holding your bandages until you receive my "call for bandages" that indicates we are assembling the bundles of bandages for shipment.

This year the D.O.V.E. Fund group will escort the majority of our bandages to Vietnam in March. Therefore, I will issue a reminder e-mail "call for bandages" about the last week of December requesting that they arrive here (171 Mulkey Lane, Ariel, WA 98603) by January 15th for inclusion in the March departure.

If you are working on bandages, please be sure to make contact with me so I have your e-mail address on file for that notification to reach you when I send it out.

Blessings to you all and keep those needles and hooks a clickin.

Bandage Workshop - Toledo Ohio

A special welcome to those of you who may have heard the live interview this morning on WSPB AM 1370 in Toledo, Ohio.

My husband and I are the guests of our D.O.V.E. Fund friends here for our first D.O.V.E. Fund annual planning retreat...the first since the Bandage Brigade became a part of the D.O.V.E. Fund this past May.

During our visit we will also be holding a Leprosy Bandage Workshop Monday October 12th, 7 pm at the Point Place United Church of Christ. It is located on 119th Street, Point Place across from the library in Toledo, Ohio.

We would like to invite you to stop by and learn more about how you can join the group of volunteers making these special bandages for the lepers in Vietnam.

It will also be an excellent opportunity for you to learn about the work and plans of the D.O.V.E. Fund in Vietnam and get answers to any questions you may have.

Please come if you can!

Feel free also to address questions to me directly at my e-mail address:
Sgtstocker@gmail.com

Blessing to you all for all you do,
Linda Stocker
The D.O.V.E. Fund Bandage Brigade

Putting a Face With The Hands

Another box of bandages came this week from our friend Nellie and her friends in Gleneden Beach, Oregon. You have seen her hands often on the header of this blog...but I thought it might be appropriate to put a face to the hands...so here she is.
Nellie was one of our first bandage volunteers and has continued working on them for well over two years. Thank you for your continued interest and work on these.

Keeping Cool During The Summer

Thank you to all those who are finding time in front of the air conditioning this summer to work on leprosy bandages.

During the past month we have received shipments from:

Barbara in White Stone, Virginia
Dorothy in Marshall, Minnesota
Patti in Ariel, Washington
Julianne in Tacoma, Washington
Edith in Sarasota, Florida
Veronica in Lansdowne, Virginia
Pamela in Hastings, Minnesota
Ann in McLean, Virginia
Shirley in Bedford, Massachusetts
Ilse at the Atlantic District Lutheran Women's Missionary League
Sheila at Mountain View United Church in New Brunswick, Canada
Sister Georgette at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Port Wentworth, Georgia

Thanks to you all our accumulation is already at 957 bandages...keep 'em coming!

Blessings to you all for your generosity and dedication.

An event we do not want to miss !

Normally I just scan through my Joanne Fabric e-mail newsletter but this item caught my eye and I just had to share it.

Bet none of the rest of you knew of this important event!!!

Come Together to Knit...in Public?

Often thought of as a solitary hobby, events like World Wide Knit in Public (WWKIP) Day allow knitters an opportunity to come together, getting knitting out of the craft room and into the public eye.

WWKIP Day, considered to be the largest knitter-run event in the world, is the brain child of Danielle Landes. This year’s event actually spans two weekends – June 13-14 and 20-21.

Around the world knitters will come together in cafes, stores, libraries and even park benches to enjoy the process, show off their stitches and shatter myths about who knits and what they’re making. Of course, this raises the question of what to knit – especially in this hemisphere where we’re starting to feel the heat of summer.

So, I would challenge you to grab your leprosy bandage knitting or crocheting and make it a point to work on it in public this weekend and next (in particular). I even read about one lady who is sure she concentrates better on the sermon at church when she is knitting during it (might want to clear that with your pastor/priest before you try it though). Make sure you have plenty of copies of the instruction handout to share with others as they will be asking what you are doing...who knows how many new volunteers we could garner.

But most of all, as my dear step-mother used to say, ENJOY !

Congratulations on the Hard Work

The bandages continue to arrive here and we are already at 741 bandages...off to a strong start.

Recent arrivals of bandages came from:

** Dorothy in Marshall, Minnesota
** Jackie in Raleigh, North Carolina
** Cindy in Springfield, Virginia
** First Presbyterian Church in Dalton, Georgia
** St. Philip Church in Falls City, Virginia
** Konnie in Wheaton, Illinois
** Barbara in White Stone, Virginia
** Angela in Redmond, Washington
** Antoinette in Cromwell, Connecticut
** Patty in Ariel, Washington
** K in Desert Hot Springs, California
** Andrea in Sterline, Ohio
** Shirley in Woodland, Washington
** Crystal in Provo, Utah
** I. L. in Salt Lake City, Utah
** Sue in Falls Church, Virginia
** The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in Roosevelt, Utah

Pictures that tell a rewarding story

How rewarding to see the looks of appreciation on the faces of these lepers in Vietnam as they receive their new handmade leprosy bandages this past month.

Keep your work up...the need continues until this horribly disfiguring disease can be totally eradicated.

Pardon our dust !

In the process of making some changes to the blogsite...hope to have it complete by May 1st.

Please check back often to see our updates and happenings.

Perfect Partners: Bandage Brigade, D.O.V.E. Fund and EVA Air

This is a direct quote from the Spring 2009 Newsletter for the D.O.V.E. Fund:

By Tom Treece

I love it when a plan comes together!

It all started with a telephone call from Linda Stocker, Personal Effects Coordinator (along with Vietnam vet/husband, Gary) of Tours of Peace, an Arizona-based organization that takes war veterans back to Vietnam. As the group also returns artifacts left behind, Linda was calling to inform me they had one of my dog tags lost 40 years ago, which they sent to me in a beautiful display box.

In turn I told them of my involvement with the D.O.V.E. Fund, in which the Stockers were excited and interested. Linda informed me that she also coordinates a worldwide group called The Bandage Brigade, consisting of mostly women who knit and crochet bandages for Vietnam’s leper colonies. One problem they were having was actually getting the bandages to Vietnam as often boxes that were shipped never found their destination. Linda asked if the D.O.V.E. Fund might be able to help and last spring our group hand carried nearly 1,000 bandages to Vietnam.

Coordination for that action involved Linda shipping seven large boxes (at her expense)from her west coast state to me in Michigan where I dispensed the bandages among our group. We stuffed the bandages in every nook and cranny of our suitcases before flying to San Francisco and then on to Vietnam in March, 2008.

The Bandage Brigade has obviously grown since then and this year has prepared nearly 2,500 bandages for us to take to those suffering the open sores of leprosy. Realizing the folly of having bandages cross the country twice, Linda and I – along with D.O.V.E. Fund Honorary Member and San Francisco bay area resident, Dianne Van Voorhis – devised a plan and approached EVA Air, the Taiwanese airline the D.O.V.E. Fund uses exclusively for our annual flights to Vietnam. Our request was that they partner with us by donating fees associated with flying these boxes to Ho Chi Minh City from San Francisco for us, and they have agreed. As such, Linda will now ship the bandages the short distance to Dianne where she will then coordinate transporting them to EVA Air at the airport.

Perhaps D.O.V.E. Trustee Sharon McKisson described it best when she said, “A dove of peace in the form of an EVA Airways jumbo jet provides free transport of eight 50pound crates of specialized bandages to ease the suffering of lepers in Vietnam.”

Special thanks to EVA Air (http://www.evaair.com) - the finest airline on which this writer has ever flown - and to Gary & Linda Stocker (and their legions of supporters) at the Bandage Brigade (http://www.leprosybandages.blogspot.com/) for their humanitarian efforts. Also, special thanks to Dianne Van Voorhis and our beloved D.O.V.E. Fund as we continue in our efforts to make a difference in the lives of the poverty-stricken people of Vietnam.

What a beautiful thing it is when a plan comes together, pairing perfect partners in unity to help change the lives of those less fortunate on this planet that we all must share; may this only be the beginning!

Wonderful New Announcement

Here is a sneak preview at our wonderful new announcement...

The Bandage Brigade is now an official project of The DOVE Fund www.dovefund.org (use link on right side of this post)
"DOVE" stand for "Development of Vietnam Endeavors" and they have a strong history of doing many wonderful things in Vietnam...check it out at their website!

This is the wonderful non-profit organization who has carried our bandages to Vietnam the past two years. Now that we are a part of DOVE we have the capabilities to expand into other areas of benefit to the Vietnamese lepers. This is all very exciting.

Also if you have a friend or group who wants to help with this project they can now make donations through the DOVE Fund for the Bandage Brigade. Since they are a 501c3organization this gives the donor the opportunity of potentially using it as a tax deduction. It is as simple as writing a check to "DOVE Fund" with the notation of "Bandage Brigade" on it. That would be mailed to The DOVE Fund, P. O. Box 350741, Toldeo, OH 43635.

In the next week or so I hope to update our header on this blog to reflect our new partnership with DOVE so keep watching for it.

All Recruits Are Welcome

As the news of our hard work spreads we are having all kinds of recruits joining in on the activity of the Bandage Brigade!

Another Bandage Delivery by our Canadian Friends - Bruce & Elaine

Bandage Brigade member, Elaine from Salt Springs Island is again working in Vietnam for three months this year with her husband Bruce doing a number of humanitarian projects (featured on their personal blog "Journeys of the Heart" which you can follow at www.ebtovietnam.blogspot.com )

One of their visits last year was to a remote leper village accessible only by boat. They vowed to return to that village again and delivered bandages to the residents there. Their trip this year was quite an adventure and I would encourage you to visit their blog and read more of the details if you have the time.

Here is an excerpt from her blog regarding that bandage delivery:

We brought another precious gift from Canada, hand knit bandages for the wounds left by leprosy. We had a good talk with the male nurse, who was grateful for the delivery (we had included bottles of bleach and lessons on how to sterilize the bandages) The nurse assured us that he knew this procedure, but when we went over to deliver the food packets to the patients in the hospital, we were aghast at the condition of their bound feet. The bindings were far from clean and certainly not sterile. The nurse estimates his needs to be about 600 bandages a year.

The important piece of information for the Bandage Brigade is that the finer gauge bandages are preferred, and surprisingly he would like them to be a shorter length, about three feet......so girls, it will be more tedious to knit on smaller needles with finer yarn, but at least we will finish in the same time with the shorter length.

Another Touching Story to Share

Many times there are notes enclosed with bandages with special messages. I was particularly moved by 4 bandages which arrived this year from "Speical Gifts" group in York Pennsylvania.

The note explained that these bandages were started in 2008 by one of their members who had since died. The group "took up the gauntlet" so to speak and finished these bandages, sending them to the Bandage Brigade in her memory.

What wonderful friends!!!

Meet Olive of York, Pennsylvania

I'd like to introduce you to a very special lady who work on our leprosy bandages. Olive is a member of the "Simple Gifts Group" at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in York, Pennsylvania.

I first learned of Olive last Fall when Joan from their group sent me bandages and told me that Olive made more of them than all the rest of their group combined. Olive has poor eyesight but reportedly could knit a bandage in an evening without even needing to look at her work.

Olive was one of the ladies using the larger gauge thread and I was concerned that when we switched to using exclusively the #10 crochet thread it would be too small for her to handle visually. Well I have been proven wrong!

In February Joan reported:

"Of note is that one of the bandages with the "skinny" yarn was made by Olive, the lady we thought couldn't work with tiny things. She says she can't read small directions, which is why she couldn't make mittens like the rest of our group did for the church's Christmas tree, but she can knit with small yarn because she doesn't look when she knits. We have offered to enlarge directions, but she doesn't seem interested in that."

Olive is a real producer on bandages, once she got started with the "skinny" yarn in just two nights she completed her first one...only problem was someone forgot to tell her when to stop...it was 77 inches long. WOW, we should all be so energetic.

Way to go Olive...we are so very pleased to have you working with us.

Bandages Continue to Arrive

New arrivals this week included bandages from:

**Madeline in Adams, Massachusetts
**Cathy in Elkhart, Indiana
**Karen in Madison, Wisconsin
**Atlantic District, Lutheran Women's Missionary League,Holbrook, New York
Since we will not be shipping bandages again to Vietnam for a number of months now, it is your option to send them as they start to accumulate at your location or save them up for a larger future shipment to me and perhaps save some on your shipping costs.

Be sure to let me know if you have any questions on the banages you are working on. Occasionally I will receive just one bandage or part of bandage when someone has a question on the gauge of their work...that is great!

Hugs to all...Linda

Helping to Bandage Sufferers

Falls Church Knitting Group Aids People With Leprosy in Vietnam

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 2, 2009; VA01

Every week after Monday morning Mass, a half-dozen women get together in an empty classroom at St. Philip Catholic Church in Falls Church to knit.

There are no balls of hand-dyed wool in pastel colors, no half-made baby's booties. These women turn narrow, austere threads into identical strips of white, cream and tan. The products of their labor will not swaddle chilly necks or warm cold feet; instead, they will protect wounds thousands of miles away in the jungles of Vietnam.

The women are among hundreds across the country who make bandages by hand for sufferers of Hansen's disease, more commonly referred to as leprosy. The dreaded and once-incurable disease has been virtually eradicated from the developed world but persists in pockets of Asia, Africa and South America. According to the World Health Organization, more than 200,000 people contracted the illness last year.

For years, the women at St. Philip had assembled weekly to make rosaries, the strings of beads Catholics use for prayer. They made pearly white ones for small children and sturdy black ones threaded with parachute cord for members of the military.

Last year, the church's pastor returned from a trip to Vietnam with disturbing stories of people who developed open sores and lost fingers and toes after contracting a scourge that some didn't know still existed. He told them the afflicted people were subsisting in an isolated settlement with the help of nuns who live nearby.

The churchwomen, some of whom had never traveled overseas, said they were moved and heartbroken by the plight of people a world away, suffering from an illness that was straight out of the Bible. Later, they learned of an organization called the Bandage Brigade, which sends handmade bandages to leprosy patients in Vietnam.

"We thought, 'Hey, we can do that,' " said Maureen Walsh, one of the St. Philip bandage makers. "That's something we know how to do."

The World Health Organization has been on a mission to eradicate the bacterial illness, which affects the skin and nerves and can cause numbness, paralysis and other damage to the hands and feet. Although leprosy is contagious, it is not spread easily and can be cured with drugs.

But the organization's efforts have been hampered by substandard health care in remote places, and the disease's stigma, which still leads to the creation of settlements, or leper colonies, even for victims who are cured. And because many are disabled, their ability to work is limited.

"There's a cure for this disease, but because these people live up in the jungle and the mountains, and because they are ostracized just like in biblical times, they have to live off of charity. It's terrible," said Carol Vincent, another bandage maker. "We were shocked. We had no idea."

Not just any bandages will do, Walsh said. They must be made of mercerized cotton, which is treated to strengthen the fibers so they can withstand repeated use after being boiled and sterilized. They must be four feet long and three to four inches wide, so they can be used to dress sores as well as be wrapped around wounded hands and feet.

They must be washed in very hot water, thoroughly dried, carefully rolled and sealed into plastic sandwich bags before they are ready to ship.

And it is important that they be knitted or crocheted by hand, said Linda Stocker, a retired banker and wife of a Vietnam War veteran who founded the Bandage Brigade from her home north of Vancouver, Wash. Stocker's group, which is not religious but has inspired church groups across the country, has sent an estimated 3,500 bandages to Vietnam since 2007.

Handmade bandages are stronger than gauze and lighter than Ace bandages, she said, and there are other benefits.

"What I'm seeing as I talk to the people in the Bandage Brigade -- and it's true of giving in general -- is that there's therapy on both sides," she said. "People have told me it helped them quit smoking, helped them diet, help them get over the death of their husbands. . . . People are saying this is filling their idle hours and makes them feel like they're doing something meaningful."

Creative Names for Creative Groups

I LOVE the creative names that some of the groups have "adopted".

"TAGS" (The Amazing Grays), is a group from St. Timothy Catholic Parish in Chantilly, Virginia

"Simple Gifts" is a group from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in York, Pennsylvania

Broadmoor Knit "WITS" (Woven In The Spirit) meets at the Broadmore United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

"Chicks With Sticks" is the name of the creative group at Custer Road United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas

The newest one to come across my key board and my personal favorite name is:
"Stitch and Bitch" who meet weekly at Harbour Ridge in Palm City, Florida

This blog site is intended to bring us all together, coordinate our efforts and encourage each other. If you have a group name, slogan, story and/or picture to share, please forward it on to me for posting.

Off to a great start

Our shipment of bandages are finally on their way and I am soooo very pleased to hear and see that everyone is already busy working on bandages for next year's shipment.

In just the last couple weeks we have received bandages from:
**Edith in Sarasota, Florida
**Anita in Athens, Pennsylvania
**Michelle in Hesperia, California
**Margie in Milwaukie, Wisconsin
**Mary in Hilton, New York
**Austintown Community Church in Youngstown, Ohio
**St. Timothy Catholic Parish in Chantilly, Virginia

Great work ladies...one suggestion...since we have months until our next large shipment goes, you are welcome to accumulate your bandages at your location and ship them to me in larger quantities in the hopes of saving you some postage.

Bidding Safe Journey to 2091 Precious Friends

It may look like just a stack of 8 plump totes ready to go on a trip. Somehow I am a bit emotional tonight as I prepare to ship off these precious bundles which contain exactly 2091 of your beautiful leprosy bandages.

Why "exactly 2091"? because that is all I could tightly fit into our allotted 8 bags without running the risk of splitting the zippers and having leprosy bandages scattered all across the airport tarmack.

Itinerary for this long journey includes...
**truck ride to Vancouver, Washington
**Fed Express shipping to Los Gatos, California
**SUV ride to the San Francisco airport
**Plane ride via EVA airlines to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
**Another automobile ride before the hand off to our Vietnamese contacts who will handle distribution to the leper villages

I am moved as I think of how many volunteers that collection represents and how many hours of tedious work, painful details but yet soothing, comforting often therapeutic work.

Then I also think of the beautiful people of Vietnam, beseiged with leprosy, who will be blessed by your thoughtfulness and hard work. You see the bandages are applied to and help their wounds, but they also recognize and appreciate the fact that someone cared enough about them and their plight to spend countless hours in making this specialized bandage.

Yes, together we are making a difference...my heart reaches out to you to say a big "Thank You" for your hard work, dedication and participation.

May God's blessings continue to shower down upon you as you start working on our shipment for next year!

Hugs from afar,
Linda

Conversion Chart for your reference

Some had asked and one of our blog readers, Liz, offered this chart of conversions. Hope it is helpful.

Knitting needles:
US size 2 = 2.75 mm = UK size 12
US size 3 = 3.25 mm = UK size 10

Crochet hooks:
US size D = 3.00 mm = UK size 11
US size E = 3.50 mm = UK size 9

Beautiful Stories Abound

There are soooo many beautiful stories of our awesome volunteers.

They tear at my heart wanting to be told...but alas you will have to wait a bit for me to post them and do them the justice they deserve...perhaps another way to keep you checking back to the blog for updates.

I do want to leave you tonight with the awesome picture above and poem sent to me by Judith Ann in Whitney Texas:

More bandages

Three more shipments of bandages arrived this week coming from:

**Tina in Fruitland, Missouri
**Judy in Penfield, Pennsylvania
**First Presbyterian Church in Dalton, Georgia

Final total is now a whopping 2457 - You are all awesome !

Together We Are Definitely Making A Difference!

Well the last of the bandages arrived today and I am awe struck with your enthusiasm and hard work.

New bandage total has exceeded the goal I had set of 2400...yes, we have 2434 !

New arrivals came from:
**Judi in Whitney, Texas
**Christine in Shoreline, Washington
**Donna in Charlotte, North Carolina
**Joan of Simple Gifts in York, Pennsylvania
**Olive in York, Pennsylvania
**Liz and Lea in Littleton, Colorado
**Elizabeth in Star Tannery, Virginia
**Claire in Newport, Michigan
**Mountain View United Church in Moncton, New Brunswick
**Grace in Indianapolis, Indiana
**Don & Diane in Green Valley, Arizona
**Lorrie in Dewey, Arizona
**First Presbyterian Church in Dalton, Georgia
**Grace in Carol Stream, Illinois
**Lindsay in Lacey, Washington
**Sandra in Springville, Utah
**Laurel in Bellflower, California
**Michele and Pat in Sheboygan, Wisconsin
**Maureen in Fairfax, Virginia
**Arty in Galena, Illinois
**Kathy in Poteau, Oklahoma

Blessings to you all...keep in touch by checking this site often for updates.