Sandy churchgoers donate to Dress A Girl Around the World

Recently, a local congregation came together to fulfill a mission to clothe at least 30 girls from impoverished areas at home and abroad.

On Jan. 4, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 8575 South 700 East, held a special service project to sew dresses for the international nonprofit organization Dress A Girl Around the World to be distributed in places as far away as Uganda.

For months before the event, the entire church congregation donated new and used pillowcases to be remade to clothe the girls, who otherwise might have gone without appropriate attire.

Children’s Minister Kelli Kirk said everyone in the congregation, including the young children, came together to support the service project.

She said the project will benefit less fortunate children, but also taught the youth of the local congregation to have gratitude for the privileges they experience living in Sandy.

“It’s nice for [our] kids to realize how blessed they are. It puts things into perspective,” Kirk said.

The Dress A Girl Around the World project is one of a series of service projects held by the church on a monthly basis.

Everyone from the congregation was invited to get involved. On the day of the project, participants who could not sew were put to work cutting and pressing the fabric, measuring elastic and running errands as 13 women worked together to sew the dresses.

In addition, church youth group children as young as 6 years old participated in a special activity to create pockets for the dresses decorated with fabric paint.

Included with each dress sent to the charity was a special message written by a youth church member to let the girl who received the dress know that she had a friend in Sandy.

One of the letters sent with a dress read, “Dear friend, I want you to know that I love you and that I pray for you. Love, Tracy.”

The completed dresses will be sent to the nonprofit organization during the second week of February, where they will be distributed to clothe girls between the ages of 18-months up to 13-years old.

Kirk said the Dress A Girl Around the World service project has been a great experience for church members. She said many in the congregation suggested that the church make the project at least annually, if not more frequently.

“It was really fun how everyone stepped up to make this happen and exciting to see the difference the dresses can make. We might do this again,” she said.