Last week We painted the walls and shampooed the rug of our new office space in the Faith Methodist Church in preparation for Move-Bee day. Then, five MoonCatcher volunteers arrived at my door on Thursday morning to pack, lug and tote MoonCatcher supplies to the new space located just 2 minutes by car from my house. I can walk there in 5 minutes! We emptied my sewing studio, back porch, living room and front entryway of stuff and Linda brought a few rolls of fabric that have been living in her basement too. We have lots more there and at other locations but the bulk of it was sitting in the middle of the floor by the time we called it quits later on Thursday.

Yesterday my husband and I put most of the shelving together that my sister Gussie and her work partner Jane gave us. We got all those totes and bags off of the floor and stowed them neatly on the shelves. Organizing each one will come next. Our friend Steve is donating some fabulous office furniture (from his business) and the church is letting us use some long tables useful for cutting and packing kits.

We did it! Last year we developed our latest strategic plan that included getting us out of my house and into a MoonCatcher space. I feel pretty proud of us for making that happen. Thank you Faith Methodist Church for your generosity.

I am so pleased that Phoebe, our coordinator rom Uganda, is here and will be until the beginning of November. She’s been coming to MoonBees and doing presentations with me. We are discussing ways to make our work in Uganda run more smoothly and reach more girls. Phoebe has wonderful ideas and will come to our annual board retreat to discuss them further with us.

We are busy making plans for our trip to Haiti in January. There are so many details to consider when you haven’t been to a country to do this work. We are thrilled to have partnered with Hope for Haiti to make all of this happen. A group of young women taking a class called “Women Changing the World” at Russell Sage college is interested in helping with our work in Haiti as well. We are excited to see what they will decide to do as they develop their service learning project. We have also recently begun working with Rose, a wonderful medical student studying at Albany Medical College. She is from Haiti has been giving us sound advice.

Be sure to check out our calendar! There’s lots going on. A witches costume ball at the end of October put on by Zonta is raising money for The MoonCatcher Project to support our upcoming work in Haiti. I’m dressing as a tampon so you’ll want to see that for sure. There are lots of MoonBees and presentations and we are gearing up for our 13th Annual Lasagna Dinner - “Dining for Dollars” - in December.

My daughter gets married two weeks from today so I will need to shift gears and think wedding for a while.

I’m grateful to everyone for all your help getting our office together, for joining us at The MoonWine and Cheese party, for attending MoonBees and for your constant support.

Happy Fall to Everyone!