MAYTOWN—Begun in 2011 as a Lent project at St. Patrick Parish here, “Little Dresses for Africa” has grown beyond the parish and beyond the Rockford Diocese. It’s even grown beyond dresses.

Parish volunteers and their friends have finished more than 2,456 dresses for girls and uncounted britches for boys.

Their project friends have come from Sublette, Sycamore, Rock Falls, Tiskilwa, Ohio, Princeton, La Moille, Mendota, and Downers Grove.

In June, Father Ted Hochstatter, who was ordained in the Peoria Diocese and now works with the Missionaries of Charity, took 28 pairs of britches with him to Kenya. His mother, Dorothy Hochstatter, is among the volunteers at St. Patrick.

Additionally, 100 dresses and 15 pairs of britches were sent to Haiti for children at a mission staffed by Felician Sisters of Chicago.

The St. Patrick volunteers welcome more helpers in their effort. They’ll provide sewing notions and being a seamstress isn’t a requirement, they say.

For information about the project, call Marilyn Weeks, 815/638-2202; Helen Ann Becker, 815/857-2762; or Mary Ann Cardot, 815/849-5911.