美國愛荷華州的莉莉安·韋伯（Lillian Weber）老奶奶已經將近100歲了，但年紀沒有成為她幫助他人的絆腳石。她每天都在不停的縫制裙子，讓那些需要的孩子們有衣服穿。從2011年起她開始做這件事，目前已經完成了超過840件裙子。她的目標是1000件。

她每天早上開始制作一條新裙子，中午休息一下，下午完成。她把制作好的裙子捐獻給非洲的“小裙子”（Little Dresses）組織，這是一家專門給非洲的小女孩分發衣服的組織。

她做的每條裙子都會有一點小裝飾或小特色，讓每個穿上裙子的女孩都有專屬自己的小驕傲。她女兒琳達說：“每條裙子她都會在前面加上點什么，讓它們看起來很特別，帶有她自己的風格。”

莉莉安還獲得了WQAD-TV的“把愛傳出去”（Pay It Forward）的獎項提名，提名者說道：“我覺得她是某些人的榜樣，有些人只是坐著一點點浪費掉自己最后的生命。”

2011年莉莉安召集了一群80歲以上的老奶奶，開始做衣服支持非洲“小裙子”。這個組織的創建者說目前已經收集到了250萬條裙子，并且把它們捐給了47個非洲國家。他們的目標是為那些世界上最脆弱的孩子提供衣服并且在這些孩子的心里根植希望。

 

Lillian Weber is on a mission.

Every day she makes another dress for a small child she’ll never meet.

“I could probably make two a day, but I only make one,” she says.

The dresses are collected and sent overseas to little girls in Africa by a Christian outreach group called “Little Dresses for Africa”.

“I have to be busy,” says Lillian.

And she’s been very busy.

In the past two years she’s made more than 840 dresses and she plans to make 150 more by May 6th of next year.

You see, by next May, Lillian will turn 100 years old and it will be her one thousandth dress.

“It’s just one of those things you learn how to do and enjoy,” she says.

In Lillian’s Scott County farm house are completed dresses for little girls, made from a pattern, but each with extra stitching and individual details, designed to give each child a little extra pride.

“She personalizes them all,” says Lillian’s daughter, Linda Purcell. “It’s not like good enough that she makes the dresses, she has to put something on the front to make it look special, to give it her touch.”

What started as a hobby has become a daily labor of love.

Lillian says she starts work on a dress in the morning, takes a break during the midday, and puts finishing touches in the afternoon.

“I just think she’s somebody to look up to, somebody whose not just sitting around and frittering her life away,” says Tonya Urbatsch, who nominated Lillian for the “Pay It Forward” award.

“I’m amazed at her every day,” adds Linda. “I’m very, very proud of my mother.”

Family and friends will continue to be proud of Lillian, well after her 1000th dress. After all, 1000 is just a number.

“When I get to that thousand, if I’m able to. I won’t quit. I’ll go at it again because there’s no reason to not do nothing.”

When Lillian is finished with her dresses, her daughters deliver them to a Davenport senior living apartment complex where a group of residents have a weekly sewing appointment to make dresses for the charitable organization.

“Little Dresses for Africa” is a Christian charitable organization founded in 2008 in Michigan.

Its founder, Rachel O’Neill, says 2.5 million dresses have been distributed.

The simple dresses are distributed to orphanages, churches, and schools in Africa.

Rachel says she’s traveling to Africa again in September 2014 and February 2015 and hopes to be able to present to a child one of the dresses personally made by Lillian.

（來源：wqad.com  編輯：丹妮）