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Highlands Today

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By BILL ROGERS

Highlands Today

Published: July 5, 2010

SEBRING - Zelda Kimm and her prolific sewing friends might not have donated clothing and other items to every nonprofit organization and health-care facility in Highlands County, but they have contributed to many of them.

RCMA Head Start, Potter's House, Guardian Ad Litem, parish nurses, nursing homes and hospices are among those that have benefited. But the outreach of Kimm and her helpers in the Denim and More Project extends beyond the state of Florida and the United States.

In 2009, the women donated 5,657 diapers, 1,954 clothing items, 609 washcloths, 456 bags, 306 quilts, 201 sleep-mat covers. The donations also included pillows, afghans, hats, duffle bags, sweaters, winter coats and crib sheets. The group volunteered 7,614 hours through early December of last year.

"The thing that has always motivated me is somehow being able to make a difference in somebody's life," Kimm said. "I think that is all that anybody wants is to make a difference."

Born in Asheville, N.C,. Kimm moved to Virginia when she was 9 years old. It was there where her volunteering began.

Kimm, who said she owned two beauty schools and 10 hair salons in Virginia, said she was invited by a fifth-grade teacher to speak at the school. Expecting to talk in a classroom, Kimm was surprised to find herself in front of an entire auditorium of kids.

Kimm figured she had to get their attention, so she decided to talk with them about service and how valuable they are especially to older people.

"You know, I have an idea," she said. "Why don't we adopt a nursing home? Maybe you all could go visit these people who never have young people; they love children. How about you all make them Christmas cards?

They made 246 Christmas cards and they went to visit," she said. "It was just amazing what came out of that little talk."

She also enlisted the help of her family members who annually visited a nursing home at Christmas and sang carols and then made Valentine's for Valentine's Day.

She started coming to Florida in 1995 with her husband, Jerry, during the winter. They lived in LaBelle for four years and then moved to Sebring six years ago.

It was in 2005 that Kimm experienced something that she described as "awesome." She was sitting in the living room of her Tanglewood home doing her Bible reading. The devastation of New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina was on her mind.

"I just said 'Lord, I can not go down there. I'm not physically able to go down there and help these people. What can I do?'

"Just as clear as you would say 'You can sew.' I heard 'you can sew.'

So I started making clothes with what fabrics I had," she said. "I started making little dresses and things."

Kimm recalled that her nephew Pat in Atlanta had bought a lot of denim. She explained that when George W. Bush became president, Pat, who manufactures men's accessories, thought because Bush was a "cowboy kind of guy" that denim ties would be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

They weren't.

Kimm called Pat and told him that she needed fabric to make clothes. He brought her 200 yards of denim 60 inches wide in one-yard pieces.

"Here I've got 200 yards of denim, one sewing machine, two hands," Kimm said.

She decided to make a flier seeking assistance for her dilemma. She was going to post it on the bulletin board. The wife of the pastor of the church suggested making an announcement from the pulpit.

It was announced and there was a good response. Kimm said nine people signed up to sew.

But there was a problem.

Kimm found out that instead of clothes for Katrina victims they wanted cash.

She had all these clothes for children that were beginning to pile up.

Kimm got on the Internet and found a willing recipient - the Appalachian Christian Project. The first year they sent out more than 1,200 articles of clothing there.

The focus then turned to Highlands County and the needs here.

"It keeps growing, growing and growing," she said.

Kimm, who turned 79 last month, spends about 40 hours a week volunteering.

In her spare time, Kimm, who attends Tanglewood Community Church, is a member of the Mission Committee, the Shoebox Ministries committee at the church as well as the Sunshine Committee, which makes meals for people who are shut-ins.

She also cuts hair for some shut-ins in Tanglewood.

"Everywhere you turn there is a need," she said. "It's a joy to do these things."

Bill Rogers may be reached at 386-5825 or wrogers@highlandstoday.com

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