Sunday 25 March 2012

The Best Picture ever for Dress A Girl Australia

My sister Joan came to my house yesterday to see where I am at with Dress A Girl Australia. In fact I was still at the postoffice picking up parcels when she rang to let me know she was coming over. She looked at all the dresses I have collected this week and all the bundles of fabrics I have received and read the notes that came with some of the donations and said - 'I feel like putting these dresses in a suitcase, fly to India or Haiti and  dressed the children. I can carry two suitcases if I have to'. Hahaha! As if it was that easy. She used to travel a lot in her old job and she used to tell me stories about children on the streets in places where she used to go. She went home taking some of the boxes filled with fabrics to help me with the cutting and making them into kits. She is an expert in using a rotary cutter. She is a great crafter, a gifted artist and teaches painting. 

Anyway, I showed her a wall version of the CD calendar I made which I had printed with Vista Print and paid only for the postage. In fact the only one and was going to give it to my Mum that it really got me annoyed when I received the first print as the postman left it outside my door and got wet because it rained that day. So I had to ring Vista Print to let them know what happened and that they should have wrapped it with plastic so it does not get wet if it rains. Lucky me, they sent a replacement. 

This is the calendar -

and this is the picture we were looking at.
I told her how I managed to get to this place (with the help of the Zonta Ladies of course) because sometimes it is not easy to go to areas such as this unless you know someone. While looking at the picture, she suddenly said - 'they are wearing the 2 dresses I made'. In fact, the fabrics that she used to make these 2 dresses were given to her by an Australian-Vietnamese lady who owned a fabric shop in Fairfield, Sydney (she and another sister of mine, Marie, drove all the way to Fairfield to buy the fabrics) after knowing that she was making dresses for the children of Africa (this is what she said at that time). After her comment we really looked at the picture and saw how memorable and significant this picture is not only to Dress A Girl Australia but to my family as well because -

1. the dresses were distributed to the children of the place where we were born and originally came from before the whole family migrated to Australia 30 years ago.
2. the dresses worn by the children were made by me(blue dress) and my two sisters Joan(printed) and Monique(pink dresses). Our first ever dresses made. The money used to buy the pink fabric was donated by our Mum. She gave me $10.00.
3. the fabrics used on the 2 printed dresses were the first fabric donations received by Dress A Girl Australia
4. the yellow dress worn by the little cutie on the left was donated by Deidre Parker the very first donor of dresses to Dress A Girl Australia
5. this picture was taken on the very first distribution of dresses by Dress A Girl Australia last Sept 2011.

Haha and Wow! Am glad I showed my sister the calendar. This is one of those things that sometimes one just take for granted. I wouldnt have realized how significant this picture is and now my sister has decided she will have this picture blown up on a canvas and framed to hang in her living room wall and soon it will become a great conversation piece. 

And one day I hope to see the 4 of us sisters and maybe with my Mum fly to Haiti with one suitcase each filled with dresses to distribute and dressed the children. Never doubt the power of your dreams to make a difference in this world. And wouldnt that be great!

No comments:

Post a Comment