Reaping What She Sews

Several years ago, television coverage about child abuse deeply affected Sadie Ray, a member of the Colfax Ward, Greensboro North Carolina Stake. “After I watched several of these programs,” she says, “I wondered what I could do to brighten up the lives of these children. At my age there’s so much you can’t do. I wanted to think of something I could do.”

It didn’t take long for Sadie to decide on a suitable way to serve abused children. The youngest of 12 children, she had grown up in a household where her mother did a lot of sewing. “I’ve sewn since I can remember,” Sadie says. “I made doll clothes when I was old enough to hold a needle.”

During her first year of sewing clothes for abused children, Sadie made 96 items, and she has made nearly that many each succeeding year. A ward member helped her find a home for abused children in Greensboro where the clothes are needed. “Many people have helped me by donating material,” Sadie says. “As a matter of fact, I haven’t had to buy any material since I’ve started. It comes from family and friends. I make summer clothes during the winter and winter clothes during the summer. That way I keep a season ahead.”

The mother of two sons and the grandmother of four boys, Sadie serves as a visiting teacher. Every other week she bakes bread for the sacrament, alternating with her sister Mary. “I have to keep busy,” she says. “You don’t have enough time to notice the aches and pains if you’ve got a project to work on. I get great pleasure from doing this. I’m very happy, and I have so much to be thankful for.”