How we wish we could have been there!

I have just looked to see that we have dozens of new members since I posted about the Soweto Gospel Choir event which happened on Saturday evening January 30th. For those of you who don't know about it, please read this post, it will help explain the evening and why this is such a triumph for KAS. http://forum.knit-a-square.com/profiles/blogs/collaboration-1

In Debbie Posmontier's words then, of what happened on the night. I think we would all be wishing we could have been there on the night!

" What a day!! It was fabulous beyond words! It is 1:00 AM and we are just getting home. Jackie and her husband Mario and Sonia and her husband Peter were a big help. Hanna got a ticket at the last minute and sat with the choir girls. Jessica, the college student who has knitted along with us, came along and brought 99 squares her club had knitted. Everyone was so helpful! Many, many people stopped by the table to donate squares and money and one go-over! We collected $287!!

It was quite an evening. I had goosebumps, tears, laughs, hugs...and most of all, the feeling of "we are one."

The girls presented the blankets on stage just before the last encore. They were dressed in black, each wearing a different, jewel colored scarf like a stole hanging around their neck. They proceeded from the audience up the steps onto the stage on the left side, walked across the stage and stopped in front of the Soweto GC singers. During this time, a member of the SGC read your announcement in her lovely, lilting, accented voice. Each girl held open her blanket and handed it to a singer. They in turn held the blankets up high while the audience applauded and whistled and yelled. Then some of the SGC singers and musicians wrapped themselves in the blankets and sang Oh Happy Day with the girls still on the stage and singing and clapping along. We were all asked to stand and sing along, too. The crowd cheered wildly as the girls walked off the stage to the right.

A huge thanks to all of you who made this possible and extra hugs to Hanna, Jackie, Sonia and their spouses, Jessica from Chestnut Hill college and my husband, Dave who were all willing to pitch in and carry things and set up and break down and most of all, spread the word about KAS!

More...as we were handing out the blankets last night and later when we were folding them and bagging them for Jackie to take to Massachusetts, I found myself saying, "This one comes from Linda in Canada, and this one is from Paulette in Minnesota, this one is all the way from Scotland, etc. I felt like they were my adopted children that I have been nurturing and protecting! Each blanket was given a business-card tag that was pinned on and read, "This blanket was lovingly made by...." It has a KAS logo on it and I wrote the name of each contributor and their location on the card. I felt so proud of all of you for your part in this wonderful evening. Thank you, thank you!!

And from the KAS team, and I know all of you, can we add our most grateful thanks to Debbie and all of you who made this possible and include the management team of Soweto Gospel Choir, Andrew Kay and Associates here in Melbourne, the Annenberg Theatre, Springside School and their Musica Mundi choir, the girls who presented and of course, the SGC themselves, who so wonderfully took on the spirit of KAS for this short presentation.

With the donations on the night and also the fantastic contribution from Jackie Sousa's boss of $200 we have the money now to get the blankets to South Africa where they will be presented to the orphans of Nkosi Haven, the orphanage the Soweto Gospel Choir support.

In a later post I will bring you the story of Nkosi who inspired this orphanage, it is a heartwarming and inspired story and will reaffirm why we are all so impassioned about this work we are doing.

And another thing: please check out the www.kascare.org website if you haven't already - it went live just in time for the show!