R Clay introduced Carol and Carla:
Carol Carman helped start up Helping Hands Northumberland in 2014. She is on the executive committee and does most of the presentations to various groups. They have 475 people who receive their monthly newsletter (copy attached). which she produces. Two other members are in charge of their Facebook page for approximately 600 people.
Carol was an administrative assistant for companies and colleges in Cobourg, Owen Sound and Ottawa.
He voluntary history includes; Brownie leader, Sunday School teacher, Distress line worker and skating instructor.
Carla Stokes discovered Helping Hands on a quest to become more of a minimalist but didn't want to just throw stuff out. She was trying to find a way to repurpose things. She joined in late 2019 but had to wait 2 years before attending her first meeting. She is the Brighton Team Lead.
Carla's background is nursing and administrative assistant work, with lots of volunteer hours in school and sports activities in the schools her now adult children attended. She has also been heavily involved in animal welfare and animal rescue organizations in various places along with community involvement including Cobourg Vaccine Clinic organized by the Cobourg Rotary Club and currently the HUGS in Brighton group.
Carla and her husband were posted to Trenton in the early 1990's which is how they discovered Brighton. After a lengthly term as expats, they decided in 2015 to repatriate back to a smaller, thriving town and Brighton fit the bill.
Carol showed some of the items they create from discarded items starting with the milk bag mats.
When a family's mother was going into care, they allowed Helping Hands to have whatever they wanted from the kitchen. Helping Hands cleaned it out and with the items helped three new families get established.
They don't want money. Although they need to replace the blades in their rotary cutters.
They meet twice a month at a church in Port Hope. Carol has many garbage bags of materials that they sort and reuse.
They send things to 40 northern First Nation Communities.
They support Canadian Food for Children that sends containers around the world.
The milk bag mats take about 4 hours to make. They are sent to areas ravaged by Huricanes or even slums. The bags have a chemical treatment that deters bugs and can last for years. They sent looms to women in Africa and now they come back and are sold for $90 as Yoga mats.
They make feminine pads that they need to buy a special plastic to complete.
They make dresses out of men's old shirts.
They make lots of diapers.
They create bags for women and children.
They send old wedding gowns and some they alter for christening gowns.
They make twiddle muffs, with attachments so that seniors can keep occupied touching the attachments.
They make Izzy dolls and worry worms.
They make small 'hearts' that they give to people in Hospice and to their family members.
They make dresses from pillow cases, and T-shirt sweaters.
They have saturated the Northumberland area and are sending things farther out.
They collect a lot of what we typically discard. See the attached newsletter as it lists a lot of what they repurpose.