MONTICELLO - Some female members of the Zwingli United Church of Christ made 86 dresses for orphans in Haiti throughout the month of June.
The making of the dresses stemmed from a retreat held in March.
A women's retreat, called the Women's Wild Winter Weekend, is held each year at the Moon Beach Camp near St. Germaine. The retreat is held two weekends in a row; Zwingli UCC members went to the second weekend of the retreat, March 9 to 11.
This year's special mission project was "Little Dresses for Africa," a mission project worked on by women all across the U.S. since 2007. More than 560,000 dresses have been sent to little girls in 33 African countries since the project started.
The women who went from the church had the opportunity to work on dresses that would be gathered and taken to Africa. Women from the church who were not able to go started working on some dresses that were then included with the ones going to Africa.
The Zwingli women brought unfinished dresses and extra fabrics back to Monticello to help finish the dress project. A group of women gathered at the church and made more dresses. Some of the women also worked on them at home. The women decided to send these dresses to Haiti with the group Haiti Allies, located out of Madison, after hearing about the needs of the group at the retreat. Haiti Allies supports schools, orphanages and food programs for children. The group sponsors mission trips from Madison twice a year and members will travel to Haiti in August with the finished dresses in their luggage.
Those working on the dresses included Mary Puntillo, Louise Brunkow, Robin Janisch, Kathleen Sulzer, Batie Freitag, Micki Durst, Anna Marie Davidson, Jane Skelton, Sarah Skelton, Cindy Lederman, Carol Schultz, Cyndi Foley, Barb Meier and Lillian Piette.
The making of the dresses stemmed from a retreat held in March.
A women's retreat, called the Women's Wild Winter Weekend, is held each year at the Moon Beach Camp near St. Germaine. The retreat is held two weekends in a row; Zwingli UCC members went to the second weekend of the retreat, March 9 to 11.
This year's special mission project was "Little Dresses for Africa," a mission project worked on by women all across the U.S. since 2007. More than 560,000 dresses have been sent to little girls in 33 African countries since the project started.
The women who went from the church had the opportunity to work on dresses that would be gathered and taken to Africa. Women from the church who were not able to go started working on some dresses that were then included with the ones going to Africa.
The Zwingli women brought unfinished dresses and extra fabrics back to Monticello to help finish the dress project. A group of women gathered at the church and made more dresses. Some of the women also worked on them at home. The women decided to send these dresses to Haiti with the group Haiti Allies, located out of Madison, after hearing about the needs of the group at the retreat. Haiti Allies supports schools, orphanages and food programs for children. The group sponsors mission trips from Madison twice a year and members will travel to Haiti in August with the finished dresses in their luggage.
Those working on the dresses included Mary Puntillo, Louise Brunkow, Robin Janisch, Kathleen Sulzer, Batie Freitag, Micki Durst, Anna Marie Davidson, Jane Skelton, Sarah Skelton, Cindy Lederman, Carol Schultz, Cyndi Foley, Barb Meier and Lillian Piette.
