View source for Associated Sewing Circles of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference (Mennonite Church)

By at least 1897 Mary Parmer of the [[James Street Mennonite Church (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA)|Vine Street Mission]] in [[Lancaster (Pennsylvania, USA)|Lancaster]], [[Pennsylvania (USA)|Pennsylvania]], had a sewing school in connection with a city mission endeavor. On 2 September 1897 the Paradise Sewing Circle was organized, followed by others. On 11 September 1911 the Associated Sewing Circles were organized with Mary Mellinger as general chairman. Semiannual meetings were held, when in addition to inspirational talks, the needs of the missions, local and foreign, and relief needs, are allocated to the numerous senior and junior circles over the conference. They also directed the conference-wide collections in the fall for the conference clothing center at [[Ephrata (Pennsylvania, USA)|Ephrata]], Pennsylvania. The district mission board in 1948 built the Mary Mellinger Cutting Room at [[Paradise (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA)|Paradise]] for the Ephrata clothing center. Here in 1952 they cut 35,735 yards of goods and 28,096 garments.
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