Blog

Next month is Step Forward Day at Pepperdine University.

One of my favorite experiences as a Pepperdine Student was Step Forward Day,it was so fun to join with classmates on service projects around the community. I remember seeing dolphins swimming in the waves as we cleaned up trash at the beach one year.

It’s exciting to share that this year the Alumni Organization’s Waves of Service program is joining up again with Step Forward Day to give more people a chance to participate all around the country, and Threads of Compassion OKC is one of the projects.

More information is available online at http://www.pepperdine.edu/alumni/chapters/stepforward/sfd2011.htm

It was so cool to come back from vacation to a box of scarves! These beautiful scarves were sent in the mail.

I think it’s great that we have so many ways for people to be involved with Threads of Compassion OKC. Some come to our monthly work days and get to meet others while working together, while others can work at home and just send the scarves. Still others are close enough that they stop by my office with scarves from time to time. This really is a project that has a lot of flexibility!

I’m hopeful that we can continue to provide scarves throughout the summer, as the need continues to go on, even though our schedules may be changing a bit.

April 16th the OKC YWCA is hosting a 5 K to raise funds and awareness to help victims and prevent future sexual assaults.

There is a community fair happening at the same time and we have a booth!

If you’re available the morning of the 16th, please consider participating in this event. You can register online to walk or run, or to volunteer, or you can join me at our Threads of Compassion OKC booth.

The information about the event is online at the YWCA site.

Hope to see you there!  

At our work day this past Sunday we started talking about how fun it was to work together and someone asked what the schedule is for the future.

So, I went ahead and planned the rest of the year. 

Here are the 2011 Work Days. 

April 3rd

May 1st

June 5th

July 10th

August 7th

September 11th

October 2nd

November 6th

December 4th

We always meet in the Potters Room at the Memorial Road church of Christ in Edmond. It’s from 2-5, and it’s totally fine to come for some or all of the time.

Most of these are the first Sunday of the month, when that fell on or very near a holiday we switched to the 2nd Sunday of the month

As the weather starts to get warmer it’s easy to wonder if we really still need scarves… the answer is yes, we do!

We give scarves all year long, whether it is 20 degrees outside or 105. The comforting function of the scarf is the same whatever the weather is.

So, let’s keep going; let’s keep knitting and crocheting; let’s keep donating to the YWCA; let’s keep comforting survivors of sexual assault.

Our “work days” continue, once a month in Edmond so that we can enjoy working together and seeing some of the other beautiful creations made by our participants.

We had a work day scheduled for Feb. 6th from 2-5.  However, due to the snow the Memorial Rd. church has changed their worship time to 2:45 in the afternoon, so we’re going to cancel the work day. 

Everyone is invited to the service at MRCC and welcome to stay & visit after it.

Our next work day is March 6th, we look forward to seeing you there!

I’m so thankful for the great variety of people that are helping make Threads of Compassion OKC possible! 

This is a stack of 4 or 500 cards!

It was waiting on my desk when I got to work today.

I suspect it will be enough to get us through 2011.

I had mentioned to a good friend and co-worker how the expense of the cards was adding up over time.

She has a relationship with a printer here that has provided great service over the years for her work projects. She contacted them and they were able to donate the cards that we need for next year!

What a blessing to have such good friends, and such generous companies here in Edmond/OKC!

This month we got a box of 20 scarves from a group.

I asked one of the ladies to tell me more about them so that I could share about it here.  Below is the information she sent.

Our group is called “Knit-Wits” at Putnam City United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City.  We started our group in the fall of 2007. We have approximately ten members and meet every other Thursday morning at the Church.  We started knitting prayer shawls for our Church members who are hospitalized or in nursing homes or confined to their homes and in need of comfort.

Over the last three years we have made baby caps and blankets for the Infant Crisis Center.  We have made hats and scarves, pot holders, hot pads, dish cloths, baby blankets and sold at our  Church bazaar in the fall and contributed the money to our Daily Bread food pantry.  We have donated knitted and crocheted items to Skyline, a Methodist Mission in Oklahoma City.

Our Church secretary became aware of Threads of Compassion through a television ad she had seen and mentioned it to our group and I contacted you for information.  About that time, we were looking for other projects to knit and crochet.

I’m so glad that they found Threads of Compassion OKC and I look forward to future gifts from the “Knit Wits”!

Here are the 20 scarves, packaged and ready to go!

We’ve scheduled our Threads of Compassion OKC Work Days for the first half of 2011!

You can join us in the Potter’s Room at MRCC on the following Sundays from 2-5 PM. These are a fun time to work with others and learn some new skills.

2011 Work Days:

January 16

February 6

March 6

April 3

May 1

June 5

I’m looking forward to this coming year and seeing what can happen with Threads OKC. Our first year was great, and I imagine 2011 will be even better!