One Dress at a Time

Several weeks ago I was talking to Andrea. We talked about the Lakota Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. We discussed how Dress A Girl could design and create cold weather dresses for the little girls. We were in the middle of sewing dresses for Appalachia so we decided to finish that project and then make plans for the next project.

I looked Pine Ridge up on the Internet and I learned that there is approximately 40,000 Native American living in one of the ten poorist counties in the US. Many families live without electricity, the winters are cold. The statistics boggle the mind. Only 13% of the children live with their biological parents.  

I didn't want to read any more because I had a knot in my stomach but I read on hoping to learn more about these innocent children. The article went on 52% of the children have been exposed to drug and alcohol abuse. How many little girls I wondered...the answer was estimated to be as high as 4,000.

Let me share a little story that I read years ago about a little boy. He had been assigned to do a report on birds. Each page of the report was supposed to be about one bird. He had a lot of birds to write about. He sat at the table with his head in his hands. It was the day before the report was due and he had not even begun. He was overwhelmed and had no idea how to begin. His father walked up to him and gently placed his hand on the boys shoulder "one bird at a time son, one bird at a time."

The statistics for the Lakota Reservation at Pine Ridge are overwhelming. Where do I begin? The answer is simple one dress at a time old girl, one dress at a time.

I made my first warm dress today...tomorrow I am going to make one more.