MAD About STaRS and the Samaritan House

Before MAD Stitches was MAD Stitches, it was officially Stitches and Seams. I had set up the studio to teach sewing. However, I struggled with wanting to divide my time between sewing and volunteering and I knew I wanted to use my sewing to “make a difference”—which is how MAD Stitches was born and… how the little aprons came about.

Almost 3 years later and I am making my first "bi-yearly" donation to the two causes near and dear to my heart—Samaritan House in San Mateo— a housing agency that helps out low income families with basic necessities like—food, clothes and shelter. The other cause is STaRs; a non profit organization that picks a new country every three years to go to and perform reconstructive surgery on children with facial abnormalities. They also use the opportunity to educate medical staff in that host country about the latest medical techniques. If such state of the art teams were not willing to donate their time to these countries, children born with cleft lip and palates (like myself) would not be able to receive the medical treatment they desperately need.

I am so happy to share that MAD Stitches doubled its donation this year. That was last years goal and now this years goal is to donate bi-yearly. I COULD NOT make this donations without the generous support of a few local people—Isabelle at TOO Cute in Burlingame for allowing me to sell my aprons at her shop. Michelle Murphy and Jennifer Rayborn at Baywood school for letting me be a vendor at the Vintage Holiday Boutique and to Nicole Vasbinder, Proprietress of Stitchcraft in Petaluma for teaching me about growing, developing and staying focused on a business. Also, to my wonderful husband, local friends and family for babysitting while I have been at craft shows or madly sewing aprons. –I DID NOT make these donations alone—it was truly with your generous support that I can continue to sew and sell!

Recently MAD Stitches made a donation of $200.00 to the Samaritan House in San Mateo and $250.00 to STaRS Foundation. So what does this money do…? Well for STaRS—it can buy necessary medical supplies such as gauze, surgical tape, and ibuprofen. For Some organizations such as Wide Smiles or Smile Train a simple donation of roughly $250.00 can mean a cleft affected child can receive one surgery. For MAD Stitches purposes that equals 13 aprons that I need to sew and sell. Awesome huh? As for the Samaritan House, a $10 donation can be turned into approximately $40 worth of food for one family—so, one apron can buy roughly $40 worth of food—super cool! Anyway, I have been so lucky to have people in my life willing to be so supportive of seeing MAD make a difference--THANK YOU