Why, you ask? What's the deal Edmunds? You don't like teaching the youth of the Valley anymore? Well, the truth is I had a rough year last year. It happens to the best of us. Some years are unbelievably awesome and some years are less than stellar. There are many reasons that it happens: mix of students, number of preps, stress, change, etc. It's different for everyone. So for me the summer following a challenging year can be one of discontent and discouragement. If I allow myself, I can hide in my house and throw myself a daily pity party! When I get like that I remember what a wise woman once said to me…"Denise, when you can't help yourself, you need to help others. In turn they will help you find your light again." After the second week of summer, I did just that. I put on my big girl panties and mapped out my journey to a happier me.
As you all know, I am a crafter. More specifically a quilter and paper crafter. So, I decided to use my love of creating to help others. The first ideas I got was what I called "Eighty pages of WAHO". My friend Beth Adkins has a foundation called the Wyatt Adkins Heart Organization. The foundation is named after her son Wyatt who passed away at the age of 6 months due to heart ailments. WAHO has to ministries: The WAHO Scrapbook Packets and the WAHO Community Playground Project. When Wyatt was in the Children's Hospital, he was always hooked up to many machines, monitors, etc. It weighed heavily on Beth that people mostly saw Wyatt as a sick boy in the hospital. So she got the idea to create a 12" X 12" scrapbook page showing a different side of Wyatt. Then she took it to the hospital to put on his crib so others could see Wyatt in a different light. After his passing, Beth decided to make it a ministry by supplying the hospital with the scrapbook pages for other parents to use to let the world know about their child.
So, I decided to use my love of scrapbooking to help the WAHO foundation. My plan was to make 10 pages a week for the remainder of the summer. I looked at the calendar and realized that there were 8 weeks left. So, 8 X 10 = 80 Pages of WAHO. I have to say it was addicted. I found myself wanting to do just one more! The pages will now go to Beth Adkins who has a group of students who volunteer their time to putting the packets together. When she has a few hundred of them, Beth takes them to Columbus Children's Hospital. So, if you visit the hospital and see a packet hanging from a crib, it just might be one that I made. For more information about WAHO, go to http://wyattadkinsheart.org
While I love to paper craft, I wanted to do something with quilting. It is my first love! I belong to the Heart of Ohio Quilters Guild. Our group of 150+ women and men have a number of service projects that we contribute to year after year. One of my favorites is the Quilts of Valor Foundation. The goal is to provide every wounded solider an Americana quilt as they recover. A wonderful woman by the name of Judy Keck started our local group. So, I teamed up with my friend Barb to do a quilt. She had the strips already cut. So I sewed them together to make the quilt pictured to the right. Barb will now take the quilt and quilt it on her long arm machine.
Once it is bound we will donate to the QOV. For more information about Quilts of Valor go to http://www.qovf.org
Both of these projects helped me put my life woes into order. It felt so good to do something for someone else. It opened my eyes to plights of others and helped me realized how blessed my life really is. As I did more, the better I felt. By the end of the summer, I was energized and ready for a new school year. That wise woman was right! WAHO and QOV helped me find my light again.
So, here's to a new school year! May everyone had a prosperous and amazing year.
Make Every Day Count
Denise
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