Meet Lillian Weber, who on her 100th birthday plans to complete her thousandth personalized dress for a little girl in Africa. Nearly every day, Lillian makes a one-of-a-kind dress for a girl she will most likely never meet. “It keeps me going after 99 years” she said. “I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t found this to do. I have been blessed with this.”
Each morning Lillian wakes up to work on a new dress in her home in the small town of Bettendorf, Iowa, to help the charity Little Dresses for Africa. Its a Christian nonprofit that sends dresses to girls in impoverished nations, including Africa. Each dress takes Lillian 4 hours to complete and its been her mission for the last three years. To date, Lillian has created almost 1,000 dresses that are being worn by little girls around the world.
Each dress she creates is unique, she adds special touches with either a personalized pattern, applique or stitch detail. “I think that’s very important to have something different for these little girls. I imagine four or five of them standing in a row, and they got a little dress on and they’re all different.” Lillian said. She came from a family of 4 and grew up on an Iowa farm and often herself went without a lot of things that her family couldn’t afford, which led her to make sure that each little girl had something of their own.
With her 100th birthday just around the corner, she has absolutely no intentions of slowing down. “If I’m still able to do it I’ll continue all the way through,” she said. “Because I know I’m making little girls happy. And that’s very important to me.”
Lillian goes to show us all that doing a little bit each day can make a big difference.