Miss Sew It All serves wounded warriors

Marsha Marr, owner/operator of Miss Sew It All, has officially joined the ranks of Sew Much Comfort as a volunteer seamstress stitching support for America's troops.

"My son is a Marine, my daughter is in the Air Force, so I enlisted too," said an enthusiastic Marr from behind her faithful 1954 Pfaff sewing machine. "I just wanted to do my part...I guess I joined up!"

What Marr joined up for was "aiding injured service members in their recovery, providing a tangible reminder of her gratitude for their sacrifice and giving them an added measure of comfort, dignity and freedom as they recover from their injuries and return to everyday life. Adaptive clothing accommodates their medical devices and situations, provides ease of use, increases personal independence and minimizes the visual impact of their medical condition," according to the mission statement of Sew Much Comfort.

Wounded service members return needing treatment for bullet and shrapnel wounds, burns, head and limb injuries and amputations. These extensive injuries require casts, prosthetics and large fixators (an external fixator is a system of pins, rods and clamps that provides extra support to hold together broken bones until they heal).

With the long duration of hospital time that is necessary for treatment and therapy, service members end up living in hospital gowns for months. What the situation needed was clothing that completely opened either right side, left side or both sides, giving medical personal access to the injury and allow the wounded warriors to easily dress themselves in what appears to be normal civilian clothing.

From its first pair of fixator pants in 2004, Sew Much Comfort has geared up to create and ship over 85,000 pieces of adaptive clothing to 97 combat medical units, military hospitals, clinics, and wounded warrior barracks in the United States, Landstuhl Germany, and in the Middle East.

A deeply patriotic mom, whose two children serve in the armed forces, Marr said, "When my youngest enlisted I visited the Blue Star Moms website (www.

bluestarmoms.org). There I saw an ad for Sew Much Comfort. I knew right then I had to sign up, and I did that very day."

Marr has joined with 1,700 volunteer seamstresses across the U.S., Canada, and Germany. It is the generosity and skill of this force that gets the job done at no cost to our service

members.

"I plan on donating two days per month to sewing for our troops. That equals a couple dozen garments to make them more comfortable. Hey, looks like I'm in the reserves," said Marr.

Lovingly touching the normal clothing laid out on her work table, ready to be transformed, she said, "I want to make this guy happy, and that one comfortable. If each of us can find what we do best and help others, you can put a smile on someone's

face. "

From her downtown Sisters workroom Marr boxes up the now adaptive clothing and returns it to Boulder, Colorado, to undergo a quality check at Sew Much Comfort's headquarters

To contribute to helping with shipping the finished items, add to the donation jar at Miss Sew It All, 372 W. Hood Ave. near the corner of Pine Street.