A group of local ladies spent Wednesday morning measuring, cutting and stitching as a way to show God’s love to others and support overseas missionary work.
One of the Family Community Education (FCE) Clubs through the UT Agricultural Extension Office in Carter County decided to taken on a special project to make dresses for missionaries to give to children in Haiti.
FCE Club member Gloria Holly spearheaded the project for the club. Holly had heard about the mission project in Haiti and decided she wanted to put her sewing talent to use to help out.
“I wanted to take on doing it this year and they wanted to help me with it,” Holly said of her fellow club members.
The group worked together to get the materials and on Wednesday morning that gathered in a conference room at the Farm Bureau office in Elizabethton with their sewing machines, scissors, needles and measuring tape to begin making dresses.
The patter the group used makes a dress out of a t-shirt by attaching a ruffled skirt to the bottom of the shirt. The pattern is simple and easy to make, Holly said.

In addition to putting their talents to use for a good cause, the club members also got to enjoy each others company as they laughed, joked and sewed away.
“I love sewing with theses ladies,” Holly said. “We always have a good time.”
Holly said she is hoping the club can make as many as 20 dresses for the project. She will be delivering the dresses to Johnson University, a Bible college located in Knoxville, at the end of May for the university to send to the mission in Haiti.
“His Seed Sowers Mission” in Jeremie, Haiti, was founded by Paul and Rachel Ronk, both of whom graduated from Johnson Bible College, which later became Johnson Univeristy. The Ronk’s eventually had to leave Hiait for health reasons, but the mission they founded has grown to include a total of seven congregations.
Don and Virginia Dugan now supervise the mission. Don Dugan continued the discipling program started by Paul Ronk, and there are now six Haitian men who oversee the congregations and do all of the preaching.
The mission has five primary schools, which serve students in preschool through 6th grade, and one secondary school for higher grades. The children there receive instruction in traditional school subjects as well as in the Bible. The school feeds the children one meal each day and also provides them with two sets of clothing and one pair of shoes each year.
The UT Agricultural Extension sponsors FCE Clubs as a way to promote community involvement while preserving traditional skills, like sewing. Each FCE Club member takes part in community involvement and service projects, like Wednesday’s dress-making session, throughout the year.
Vickie Clark, director of the Extension Office in Carter County said there are currently three active FCE Clubs in Carter County but there is always room for more groups to form.
For more information on FCE Clubs, to join an existing club or for information on starting a new FCE club, please contact Clark at 423-542-1818.