Home > 2015 > Talking Pants – January 2015

New total 86,895.

It felt strange typing 86,895 for the overall total, I double checked it as sometimes I can’t quite believe how many pants and bras we’ve collected. We celebrate being 5 years young this August and wonder what the total will be by then!

The huge amount of underwear that has been donated is made up from people sending small individual packages to people organising collections amongst their friends or their clubs and churches, and I’m equally grateful for the smaller packages as the bigger ones as they all add to our overall total. It’s always lovely to meet people that have donated (apart from if it’s early Saturday or Sunday morning and I have to answer the door in my pjs!!) to hear why Smalls has struck a chord with them. I’ve met people that have worked in Africa and heard their stories about what a lack of underwear has meant to people they worked with, or quite simply they just can’t believe something that we take for granted is a such a luxury. So it was lovely to meet with some of the MX5 Central Scotland members, despite the bad weather we made it to Cumnock (not in a MX5 though!) where we had a lovely lunch. The club have been regular donors and supporters of Smalls for some time now so it was great to meet everyone and have a blether, a special thanks to Charles and Heather for introducing Smalls to the club and being chauffeur on the day.

I received a late, lovely Christmas present when an envelope from Ruth & Maureen arrived earlier in the month. Maureen had made me Christmas tree decorations and sent me a poem to “inspire me” and as usual Ruth made me laugh with her promises to work harder and her declaration of “I wish I was kissing you instead of missing you”. I’ve known these girls (and Sarah) since January 2010 when I first visited St Monicas Children’s Home and it’s been a joy watching them grow up over the last 5 years. Attending Mary’s graduation, another St Monicas girl I’ve known since January 2010 was an honour and a day that I hope many of the 31 girls we are sponsoring will experience. It’s fair to say I don’t have the same close relationship with the other 28 girls but I know something they all share is the desire to get an education giving them the best possible chance in life.