Bethany Eggleston, director of development at Arizona Helping Hands, spoke at Rip ’N’ Sew Club’s February general meeting.

Eggleston’s employer is the largest provider of essential needs to the 12,000-plus children in foster care in this state (the actual number is higher, she said, because Arizona’s Indian tribes handle their own foster care).

“We’ve gotten pretty good at serving these kids,” Eggleston said, noting that Arizona Helping Hands is in its 25th year.

A visit to the group’s warehouse tells the story: “There is a sense of awe about the quantity there,” Eggleston said. There are huge areas for toys, clothing, and beds, including cribs with mattresses and twin beds with frames and mattresses.

“We’ve gotten pretty good at serving these kids,” she said. “We just want the kids to win.”

Our mission this year, Eggleston said, is to get to the children where and when they need it.

“We’re not an organization,” she said, “we’re a community” and Rip ’N’ Sew Club of Sun City West and other organizations are part of that community.

In the last several years, Rip ’N’ Sew has created many items for the children served by Arizona Helping Hands.

Shortly before the general meeting started, club members loaded Eggleston’s vehicle with 110 reversible drawstring bags for foster children to carry their belongings in when they move from one home to another. Club members, including those in the subgroup Sewing From the Heart, made the bags.