The Halfway Mark, 450 Pillowcases For Mary Bridge

Well, it happened, 450 pillowcases were hung. What a momentous day! My husband worked on stringing the lines for me on Friday night so that we wouldn't have that to do on Saturday morning. Below is a before picture with the lines crisscrossing all over my garden.

And here is what it looked like from above once the pillowcases were all on the lines.

I couldn't have asked for a better day, the temperatures were in the mid 70's, very little wind and great sunshine. Today it's raining. 

I would like to give a special thank you to the two pilots who flew over and took pictures, Lee Hogan and Butch Bejna. Butch and I meet because we volunteered to fly for a program called Young Eagles. The program is sponsored through the Experimental Aircraft Association which is in Oshkosh, WI. The focus of the program is that by introducing children to flight, it will help them realize whatever their dreams are for their own lives. To date, Butch has given almost 2000 children a ride in his airplane. That's one child at a time as he only has two seats, one for the pilot and one for a passenger. I've flown quite a few, but nothing like Butch. So, once again, thank you Lee and Butch for giving us the gift of seeing the cases from above.

Butch and Lee also too the pictures to celebrate the fist 100 donated pillowcases. Just to refresh your memory, here's what the first 100 looked like from the air.

 The last flyover will be when we have reached the goal of 900 pillowcases. This will take place when all the leaves are off the trees, so this will be a spectacular sight I'm sure. 

I made a little video. What fun it was to walk through all of the cases.



As I said in the video, generosity abounds. When I first thought of participating in this project, I thought that I would donate at least a few, but the universe spoke to my heart and said, "why not 900?" I knew I couldn't do it alone, so I asked and look what has happened, truly a miracle. Thank you for your time and your resources. We will never meet the children whose heads these cases will hold, but we will touch their lives in a very special way as they will know that someone cared enough to do something special for them.
For anyone who has just happened upon this blog post, the pillowcases are going to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma, Washington. Each child who is admitted to the hospital is given a pillowcase. We are very close to reaching the goal of collecting 900 pillowcases, a little less than 200 are needed. If you would like to participate, here is a link to the simplified instructions that I did, http://www.rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-simplified-pillowcase-instructions.html And, if you are participating, email me at sewbussted@yahoo.com and let me know.
Thanks again everyone!!
Rhonda