To date, with a wonderful team of volunteers, we have sent over 1,500 bibs to the Mustard Seed residential care facilities. There are over 1,600 disabled residents in the care facilities of Mustard Seed in Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. Our goal for Bumble’s Bibs is to deliver enough bibs to the Mustard Seed care facilities so that each disabled child and adult will have a clean bib during each meal time. As part of Bumble's Bibs, we have started a sewing center for young unwed mothers living in a home called Mary's Child within Mustard Seed Communities. The sewing center provides sewing training and certification for the residents, along with new sewing machines and individual sewing kits. Our goal is to give each resident the opportunity to learn new skills to help support herself and her young family.
Kelsey and Lillie Fleming
The bibs would help keep the residents clean, dry and therefore, more comfortable. In turn, the caregivers would spend less time cleaning the residents and changing their clothes and would be able to spend more interactive and therapeutic time with the residents. We remembered the large, decorative bibs Bumble made for her grandchildren from kitchen towels and cloth baby diapers. When we returned from the mission trip, we started sewing large bibs to send to the Mustard Seed Communities for disabled children and adults in Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. We also started to "recruit" volunteers to help us sew and deliver the bibs.
We started Bumble’s Bibs in honor of our grandmother, Bumble, who passed away from a motor neuron disease in July 2013. Bumble devoted a large part of her life to improving the lives of sick, disabled, and underprivileged children. After she passed away, we knew we wanted to help carry on her legacy.
The idea of Bumble’s Bibs was born during a June 2014 mission trip to Mustard Seed Communities in Jamaica while we were feeding meals to severely handicapped children and adults. The residents’ disabilities made feeding very difficult and messy. We noticed how helpful it would be if each resident had a large bib to wear during meal times.