INSIDE
Community Calendar ���������A14
Serving downtown Fort Wayne
• Fine Dining • Live Jazz • Lunch & Dinner • Catering
Memorial Day tribute �����������A8-9
235 E. Superior St., Fort Wayne 260.426.3442 clubsodafortwayne.com
MAY 2018
INfortwayne.com
Sewn with love By Bridgett Hernandez bhernandez@kpcmedia.com
A package containing 126 colorful dresses is making a 10,000-mile journey – from a sewing room in Fort Wayne to an orphanage in Uganda. Over the course of a year, Martha Hatch, a retiree living in Fort Wayne, has spent hours sewing dresses for little girls who she might never meet. She first learned of the orphanage’s need for clothing about five years ago. Since then, she has been volunteering her time, talent and own money to the charitable cause.
project. The dresses are simple – a cotton shift with an adjustable drawstring ribbon neckline – and colorful with bright patterns ranging from flowers to flamingos. Now the dresses are ready to make the long journey from Hatch’s sewing room in Fort Wayne to missionaries in Texas who will travel with the dresses to the orphanage in Uganda. A common thread Weatherford described Hatch as a “sewing dynamo” with a servant’s heart. “I think her whole life has been one of service,” she said. Hatch retired from a career in human resources at Dana Incorporated. These days, she’s more active than ever between
her gig as a substitute teacher, helping out at her church, St. John Missionary Baptist, spending time with her family and admittedly more hobbies than she has enough time for. She also quietly completed a large volume of charitable work: care bags for cancer patients, blankets for children in foster care, bibs and birth cloths for military families, and nightgowns and pajamas for nursing home residents just to name a few. The accomplished seamstress is modest about her contributions. She doesn’t seek out the spotlight. “No one needs to know. If there’s a need, there’s a need. You just do it,” she said. She doesn’t do it for the attention; she does it because she loves the
work. On her living room walls, counted cross stitch pictures hang See SEWN, Page A4
Hatch holds up one of the 126 dresses she made for girls at an orphanage in Uganda. Each year, she sews for a number of charitable causes.
Find your winter and spring wardrobe at Goodwill.
INSIDE: Remembering the fallen nA
tribute to World War I veterans who died while serving. Page 8-9
When you shop at Goodwill, you save money on quality clothing, shoes, purses, household items, electronics, jewelry, books and furniture. Even better, you support programs that connect people with disabilities to meaningful employment. Take advantage of these discounts to save even more: - Daily 50% off sale on select color-tagged merchandise. - Senior discount 25% off store-wide on the 2nd/4th Tuesdays. - Monthly 50% off store-wide sale. - Fresh merchandise added daily to every store.
VISIT OUR NEW STORE AT 3101 EAST STATE BOULEVARD!
3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808
INfortwayne Publications
A helping hand Last year, Hatch applied for a grant from the Fort Wayne branch of the American Association of University Women to help fund the annual project. She had never applied for a grant before but she thought she’d give it a shot. Hatch didn’t get the grant because it wasn’t a local project, but the board of trustees still wanted to support her project, said board member Martha Weatherford. “We liked the idea for her project, but she didn’t fit the guidelines, so we just decided we would support her at our spring brunch in May,” she said. Members gathered fabric from their stashes at home and bought fabric and ribbon to help. The group donated six shopping bags of fabric and sewing supplies and $141 to Hatch for her
PHOTOS BY BRDIGETT HERNANDEZ
Martha Hatch, of Fort Wayne, sewed 126 dresses for girls at an orphanage in Uganda. This year, members of the Fort Wayne branch of American Association of University Women donated fabric and money to support Hatch’s annual project.
www.fwgoodwill.org
DONATE | SHOP | CREATE JOBS