Sewing - A Service to Girls In Need

It was a Sunday morning, and in my usual fashion of sipping coffee while my twin teens slept in, I was perusing the internet for ideas for my Girl Scout troop.

With sheer delight, I ran across a blog on the Girl Scout website about Eva St. Clair and her business. I was struck by the concept of "Clothes That Rule. Like She Does." How brilliant to create girls' clothes with dinosaur prints.

My dinosaur girl is now sixteen, no longer shopping in the girls' department. Eva, where WERE you when my dinosaur girl was frolicking in boring dinosaur pajamas purchased in the boys' department? I started to kick myself that I had not come up with the concept to sew my daughter dinosaur clothes, before she outgrew her fascination with those prehistoric reptiles.

She-Rex has a tea party!

Most striking, though, was the headline describing how Eva's Girl Scout leader had changed her life, which brought tears to my eyes. Imagine the power of those sewing lessons that her leader gave her. Several of my Girl Scout "sewing students" have worked on a project to sew hundreds of reusable, sustainable menstrual supplies. These scout-sewn reusable kits will be delivered to girls throughout throughout the developing world.

You see, every time a girl in the developing world receives a sustainable menstrual hygiene kit, she stays in school, not sequestered in her home. These Girl Scouts, by sewing, are providing the dream of an education to hundreds of girls throughout the developing world.

Madeline Brown

My daughter, Madeline Brown, translated her sewing skill into a project for her Girl Scout Gold Award, the nationally-recognized, highest award that a Girl Scout can earn. She taught and led a group of five women and twelve girls to sew sixty baby diaper bags and three hundred baby hats for a clinic serving low income expectant mothers and their families.

So, Eva, when your daughter "comes of age" to be a Girl Scout, let's partner together to teach even more girls to sew and to ​change the world.

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Madeline Brown

Lisa Moore is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the UCLA Department of Internal Medicine. She has been leading her daughter's Girl Scout troop for the past 11 years.