Already gearing up for Christmas? You bet!
Volunteers involved in this summertime project are busy making 60 sewing kits for Seafarers' Christmas at Sea gift bags. These volunteers are requesting your help gathering needed materials. Folks don't do much sewing anymore, so, perhaps you could donate some items you have knocking around, gathering dust in your "saved, just in case" box.
Items include:
- white shirt buttons
- medium, dark colored buttons for trousers or skirts
- large black coat buttons
- safety pins, large & small
- standard sewing needles
- thread in colors black, navy, khaki or white (only)
- thimbles
- lacy ribbon (1/2" to 1" wide)
- empty amber prescription vials with lids (the small size that holds about 50 ml of fluid)
These little bottles will be decorated by decoupage technique. Add a square of felt with ribbon attached, and we will take your contributions and turn them into lovely miniature sewing kits!
Look for the collection box in the Parish Hall, and if you should have any questions, contact Elisabeth Eliassen.
Seafarers' Christmas at SeaSince 1898, during the Spanish American War, volunteers of the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI) have knitted, collected, packed, and distributed gifts to mariners who are miles away from home during the holidays. The gift consists of a hand-knit garment, a personal letter, and information on SCI’s services for mariners. In addition to this, SCI also includes sev eral useful items like hand lotion, lip balm, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a bar of soap—things difficult to come by when working long stretches on the water.
Knitting groups around the country connect with SCI in weekly knitting meetings at churches and at knitting-sponsored events. Through online sites like Ravelry and the CAS blog (blogs.seamenschurch.org), the Institute works with hundreds to make the program effective.
The historic name of this volunteer program, Christmas at Sea, only partially describes the work of the people who make holidays a little warmer for mariners. While gift distribution happens during winter months, collection and creation of items happens year round, and while many gifts go to international mariners working "at sea," thousands of gifts also go to mariners working on inland waterways here in the United States.
Between November through mid-December of 2009, SCI-Bay Area’s International Maritime Center delivered over 2,000 Christmas bags to ships that called into the Port of Oakland. In total, SCI’s five ecumenical hospitality Centers from the East to West coast delivered over 19,000 Christmas bags!
CEC’s Outreach Commission will participate in the CAS program. By ‘adopting’ two vessels, we would be able to provide Christmas bags, (a.k.a. ‘ditty bags’), filled with a knitted hat, scarf and necessities, to at least 60 mariners out of the thousands who call into the Port of Oakland. These gifts will be given to the Captains for them to place outside each of their crewmembers’ door on Christmas Eve, so that on Christmas morning, they will have a special gift waiting for them.
We invite you to join the Outreach Commission to warm the hearts of 60 mariners as they find a special gift waiting for them on Christmas morning.
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