Happy April, and Happy Earth Month!
Instead of making a lame April Fools Day joke, I am going to tell you a story.
Many people ask me how I was inspired to raise money for children in need. I have 2 memories that stand out from my younger years. When I was 10 years old, a new girl showed up in our classroom. I noticed very quickly that she only had 2 dowdy dresses, which were mended and patched. She was very quiet and seemed very sad. Nobody would talk to her. I found out that she was an orphan and lived in a group home out in the countryside. This literally made me burst into tears when I found out. So I sat with her at lunchtime and tried to be her friend.
A few months later she stopped coming to class. It took about a week of asking and investigating, to find out that she had been riding a horse on that country highway, and had lost her life in a horse-car accident. I was devastated. My heart was broken – for her short sad life.
Later, when I was 22 and living in Hong Kong working as a fashion designer, I was assigned to a project at a factory out in the New Territories. Once a week I took a train out to this area, then walked to the factory to meet with the patternmakers and samplemakers. The train station was next to a shanty town and I had to walk through the slum to get to the factory. There were refugee children who would follow me and ask for money and food. So I began to bring bags of treats to give the kids, and I befriended one skinny dirt-smudged little boy who had the most beautiful smile.
One week, as I walked through the cardboard and tin shacks, I noticed this boy was missing. When I asked, the other children hung their heads and said that he had died. That was when the weight of their plight hit me like a giant sledge hammer. Was there something I could have done to save his life? I’ll never know, but it made me think about being more conscious and most importantly…to not look away when there was an urgent need staring me in the face.
We are getting very close to a very big number – we are just shy of $1.98 million raised for non-profits. This is an accomplishment we can all celebrate together, because we could not have done this without your support of our family business. The non-profits who are saving children’s lives – Mission of Love, Doctors Without Borders, Engineers Without Borders, and Altrusa – have told me time and again that due to our support we have saved not hundreds, but now thousands of lives. You are part of that story, and I would like to express our humble gratitude. Thank you.
sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul
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Travel/Quilt Calendar:
April 18-26 – Pour l’Amour du Fil – Nantes, France (Apr 20 – Art & Activism Lecture)
April 27-30 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
May 27 – Dairy Barn, Athens OH – Quilt National – Art & Activism Lecture
June 8-10 – Quilt Canada – Halifax, Nova Scotia
August 18-24 – Bear Camp in Alaska
