Small Group: SERVICE; Sole Hope, January 2012

Our Small Group has decided to use the 5th week of the month (the ones that have a 5th week, anyways), and spend it doing service projects. We will meet at our normally-scheduled time, with kids, and spend that 2 hour block of time doing something for others. Our first Small Group: SERVICE was Sunday, January 29th, 2012. 

Although 2 couples were unable to attend that night, we had a great time working together, and I think we all collectively agree that doing a service night like this is a good idea. There are the logistical challenges that having this many people (and especially this many children) pose, but we had plenty of workers while three of us decided to watch kids.

While we don't intend to do this particular service project each time, Sole Hope worked well for us this go-round. The short of the project is this: You pay Sole Hope to send you a kit with instructions/patterns and you acquire the denim, material, scissors, baggies, etc. You host a "party" to cut and assemble parts of shoes, and ship the raw materials back to Sole Hope. Then Sole Hope sends them to Africa, to be sewn by locals. The shoes are then bought back by Sole Hope from these workers, and then given to children in need of footwear.

WE MADE 17 PAIRS OF SHOES. Yes, PAIRS. Isn't that cool!?!?

So, the cost of the project can vary, but here's what we paid:

-$10 for the Shoe Kit (from Sole Hope with instructions and patterns)

-$0 for two pairs of donated jeans

-$8 for two yards of fabric (bought at 50% off the clearance price at Joanne's--used for the inside of the shoes)

-$12.99 for a pair of pinking sheers (we needed more than one, and couldn't find more to borrow)

-$0 for scissors, one pinking sheers, Sharpies, safety pins, baggies, etc that we already had amongst the group

-$170 to sponsor each pair of shoes ($10/pair) that we made (that's the money Sole Hope uses to buy the shoes from the workers which they then donate to the children)

Seth's mom found these men's size 52 jeans at the resale store and donated them to the cause. (Doesn't he look good having lost all that weight!? ;-)

Thanks to a friend in our Sunday school class, we actually had 2 pairs of jeans.

the table all ready for the workers to arrive

the 'organizer' section (that's the sample they sent us as an example--part of what we got in the $10 kit)

Prior to the group arriving, Seth and I cut both pairs of jeans into usable pieces. Ripping seams where needed, cutting the legs apart, etc. We also had to cut the pattern out of the pages they came on. The other fabric you see is what we bought at Joanne's for $8.

What it looks like when you've traced pattern pieces on to the denim. (and labeled them... these pieces are all size 6)

At the far end, we had our tracers who then passed to either side of the table for cutting, down to me to organize the pieces, and cut a piece of plastic out of the milk jugs you see in the front left of the photo. Each pair has to be pinned together and labeled, hence the safety pins and sharpies and baggies.

Cesar, cutting the interior fabric.

Our tracers doing a GREAT job of getting everything as close together as possible.

Sean, also cutting the interior fabric.

Sam, cutting some denim.

The Lopez Family.

The Russ/Roberts Family. (And the babysitting dads in the background.)

2/3 of the Alisentono Family.

2/3 of the Rasoi Family.

2/3 of the Spofford Family.

A completed pair of shoes, ready to be shipped.

5/6 of the Spofford Small Group after a night of working hard. Plus Georgia Mae. ;-)

A HUGE Thank You to everyone who helped us with this project!!! To my MIL, Kim Spofford, who lent us pinking sheers and donated a very large pair of jeans. To Rob Nickell for giving our small group a pair of unwanted jeans. To everyone in our Small Group who attended our first Service Night, either patiently watching children, or having worked their fingers raw cutting and tracing the material. To Christina Childress for the idea in the first place.