Old hotel pillowcases are being used to clothe children in Haiti, reports USA Today.
The Embassy Suites in the Charlotte, North Carolina area was recently honored by the hotel chain for a charity effort where old pillowcases are converted into colorful dresses for Hatian girls.
Haiti, with it's fairly regular natural disasters, is a country with a lot of extreme poverty. Last fall, the Embassy Suites Charlotte/Concord Golf Resort & Spa donated an estimated 300 pillowcases. Joining with a church group, workers were able to create approximately 450 dresses from the linens.
According to the hotel general manager's Terry Crawford, it is Frank Bethea, a longtime employee, who deserves credit for the initiative. Bethea is both a bellman at the hotel and a member of the Greater Providence Road Baptist Church in Charlotte. USA Today writes, "He brought the partnership idea to the hotel. His church has been active in helping Haiti for years and had come up with this idea after the earthquake, Crawford says."
Crowford explained the hotel's reaction. "We said, that's a great idea. We have the pillowcases. We discard linen everyday," he said. "So we said let's combine our material with their skill set."
At one point, the 308-room hotel, which opened six years ago, provided space for church members to produce the clothes. The dress makers also dyed some of the dresses so each girl would have a different style.
The church sent over 450 dresses to its ministry in Haiti for distribution in March. Hopefully the pillowcases were cleaner than the average hotel remote control.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
