Back in February, I had the opportunity to participate in something called Charity Night at the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat in Tacoma, Washington. There, in front of an audience of perhaps 300 knitters, I talked about The Mother’s Day Project, read from letters I have received and showed a five minute video of some of the name swatches gathered from the nearly 180 project participants.

Since I don’t solicit donations for the MDP, I designated two nonprofit groups to receive any donations that audience members felt inclined to give: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count (for the important and necessary work they do to collect and analyze statistical information about the Iraq War, the numbers of dead, wounded, missing, etc.) and Heifer International (for their practical gifts of livestock and other domesticated animals to impoverished people and families around the globe to assist them in becoming self reliant and to develop sustainable communities).

I’ve always known that knitters, as a group, are the kind of people I want to hang with. They’re funny, often irreverently so, usually pretty darn smart (’cause we have to do all that math and visual charting stuff, to say nothing of the advanced hand-eye coordination skills which indicates good left/right brain development) and they’re generous.

Actually, generous does not seem an adequate description for what happened on Charity Night.

Nearly $1,000 was collected for my two nonprofit entities, which included more than enough to purchase a “Knitting Basket” from Heifer International, and a total of $6,645 was raised and shared between all of the charitable organizations with representatives on the stage with me that night.

Knitters.

I’m humbled in your presence.

Sorry, to keep you waiting so long. The first tote bag is in the construction phase and I’m happy to present you with this preview and short update on the project.

There is still a ways to go since most of the remaining construction - adding more names, incorporating the extra stitchery some of you provided and building upon the layers of collage with embroidery, beading and other embellishment - is all done by hand. However, I’ve made a lot of progress in just the past couple of weeks.

Also, I wish to thank the organizers of the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat in Tacoma, Washington, for giving me the opportunity to present a short description and video about The Mother’s Day Project at their annual gathering last weekend. The response was overwhelmingly positive and resulted in being able to raise funds for Iraq Coalition Casualty Count and Heifer International. My sincere thanks to everyone who donated money and/or took the time to speak with me personally. I appreciate your heartfelt responses and your support.

One side of tote with approximately half of total names in place

Close up of embellished section

Another close up

Opposite side of tote bag ready for names to be attached

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I’ve been up to. Thank you, everyone, for your lovely stitching and written notes which continue to inspire me daily.

Ashley Sietsema, 20, a member of the Illinois Army National Guard serving Operation Iraqi Freedom, died November 12th in Kuwait City. She died of injuries suffered in a one vehicle crash when the ambulance she was driving overturned.

Her life was full of promise, her family and friends said. She married Max Sietsema in April. She had been enrolled at Northern Illinois University prior to being deployed, and hoped to become a nurse.

Ashley Sietsema is the 100th female Coalition soldier to die as a result of serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Spc. Christine Ndururi, 21, died November 5th while enroute to Iraq. According to the Massachusetts Eagle Tribune:

Army Spc. Christine Ndururi of Massachusetts called her family Monday morning to give them the news that her first overseas deployment would be to Kuwait and then Iraq.

The next day the Department of Defense announced that the 21-year-old soldier died of a “non-combat related illness” at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.

The family is still waiting for an explanation about how she died.

The public affairs office at Fort Hood, Texas — where Ndururi was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment — released no further details about the death. Spokeswoman Nancy Bourget said it remains “under investigation.”

“She has not been sick,” Ndururi’s father, Wilson Wachira, 45, said yesterday at the family’s home at 46 Woodbine Path. “I’m waiting for them to tell me what happened. She was not ill, unless she was ill after 9 o’clock when she talked to her mother. Before she was deployed there, she had to have a medical checkup.”

Ndururi, an automated logistical specialist, called her mother at 9 a.m. Monday from a pay phone in Rhode Island to tell her about her assignment.

Then the parents heard from the military at 9 a.m. on Tuesday that their daughter was dead.

“To me, she was OK,” said her mother, Mary Mwaniki, 45, recalling the last time she spoke to her daughter. The conversation didn’t last long. Mwaniki, a nursing aide, was at work. She told her daughter to call back, but she never did.

Ndururi enlisted in the Army reserves while a high school senior, her father said. The family moved to Massachusetts from Kenya when she was 16.

The following report about on the death of Carletta S. Davis, 34, was taken from the Fairbanks Daily News .  Staff Sgt. Davis was killed November 5th when an IED exploded near her humvee in Iraq.

Lavada Napier came to Alaska in 1979 because the wages were much higher than in Louisiana at the time. She left her four children with their grandmother, but after nine months of working, she saved up enough money to move them up here, including her oldest, Carletta.

Napier, who lives in Fairbanks, recounted that Davis was the best-behaved of her children while growing up. An elementary school principal once called her to tell her that two of her younger children had been acting up, and was shocked to learn they were related to her older daughter because Davis was such a model student.

“She didn’t give anyone any trouble,” Napier said. “She was the type of person who always tried to do the right thing.”

Davis enlisted in the Army in 1994, a move that surprised her family.

“I was more afraid for her than herself,” Napier said. “She was scared of spiders and roaches and I said, ‘I hope you know what you’re doing because you’re going to be sleeping outside on the ground.’”

Davis was a health care specialist assigned to the 10th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. She was previously deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1996 and 1997. This was her third tour in Iraq, having served there from April 2003 until March 2004 and from December 2004 until November 2005.

Napier said Davis was worried about returning to Iraq and made sure to spend more time with her family, including her husband and three sons before her most recent deployment.

“I think she was concerned particularly for her children,” Napier said. “She knew the danger of going back a third time.”

She often visited her mother in Fairbanks and was debating between moving there or to Wasilla eventually.

“She came here and said, ‘I don’t know if I can put up with the cold, but you all can, so I should be able to put up with it,’ but she didn’t get that opportunity,” Napier said.

Davis is survived by her mother, husband and three sons, Trey, Theodore and Tyrique.